Who To Follow On Day Two Of The Cheltenham Festival

Envoi Allen is unbeaten in all seven of his contests which include a point to point, four bumper wins including the Grade One Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham festival and since his switch to hurdles he has swept the field aside on three occasions.

Three starts ago after winning nicely at Down Royal on his debut he went on to win in the Grade One Royal Bond Novices Hurdle at Fairyhouse over two miles seeing off his stablemate Abacadabras who has since gone on to win nicely in a Grade One franking the form.

Having not been tried over two and half miles but ever shortening in the Ballymore market, Gordon Elliott sent his horse to Naas in the Grade One Lawlor’s of Naas Novices Hurdle where he went on to win very comfortably staking his claim as one of the bankers of the festival.

This week the market was rocked due to his trainer seriously considering switching him to the Supreme but he is now in this contest and has a superb chance of extending his unbeaten run.

It would not be a Cheltenham festival without tipping up Willie Mullins to have a good day and after a decent first day for the trainer we expect him to have two more winners.

He has a fair few chances but in the big contest of the day, the Queen Mother Champion Chase he has Chacun Pour Soi and The seven year old has only had four starts for the handler since joining from France back in December 2016 but has shown plenty of ability on all of his runs just losing his unbeaten record on his latest start.

Having not raced since March 2016 he went to Naas for his first run in nearly exactly three years in a Beginners Chase and showed a perfect temperament to take the spoils by 31 lengths.

He was then sent to the Punchestown festival with many punters still unaware of the ability of this horse but he gave one of the stand out performances of the meeting, beating the Arkle Novices Chase winner Duc Des Genievres and JLT Novices Chase victor Defi Du Seuil to land the Grade One Ryanair Novices Chase.

He made his seasonal debut this season over Christmas at Leopardstown in a Grade One Chase against some superb horses and although looking like he had the race wrapped up he found nothing when coming off the bridle and was pipped close home by A Plus Tard.

He got back to winning ways on his final start at the Dublin Racing Festival when again seeing off a decent field including stablemate Min in the Grade 1 Dublin Chase and that is some very stylish form.

Mullins also holds a live chance in the bumper with Appreciate and he is the short priced favourite for the last race of the day finishing third in his first point behind the impressive Envoi Allen which is a strong form line to start with.

He has ran in three bumpers to date finishing third on his rules debut at Fairyhouse but since then has turned into a different animal.

He bolted up at Christmas at Leopardstown in a two and half mile bumper not seeing a rival for the last two furlongs.

At the same track he landed a Grade Two in the same form as his other win which is what has sparked him to the top of the market.

He looks the one to beat.

Keith Donoghue is a key member of the Gordon Elliott team and for the last few years has looked forward to the Wednesday at Cheltenham as he gets to sit on Tiger Roll in the Cross Country Chase.

The two time Grand National winner will head to Cheltenham bidding for his fifth festival winner and truly cement himself into the history of the sport of being one of the greatest horses of a generation.

After suffering a setback at the start of the season it was touch and go for a short time whether he would be able to head to the festival at Prestbury Park or even head to Aintree for his record breaking run in the Grand National.

However, after an operation which saw him have surgery to remove a chip in a joint in November he has been back in full training for a few months now had a prep run at Navan where he finished a pleasing fifth.

He is said to be back to his old self and after dominating this race for the last two seasons he has a strong chance of landing the hat-trick.