Cheltenham Festival LIVE: Tips and outcomes from Ladies Day as L’Eau Du Sud and Majborough star in Champion Chase

The darts phenom is back-to-back at Prestbury Park, having taken in his first day at the Festival on Day One.

Littler shared his box with tour rivals Luke Humphries and Nathan Aspinall, and travelled to Cheltenham with his girlfriend Faith Millar.

After one day of racing, the Brits lead in the Prestbury Cup, the annual competition between British and Irish trainers to see how can train the most winners.

Usually the Irish behemoth of Willie Mullins more than contributes to a barnstorming victory for the visitors, but the hosts started as they will mean to go on, leading 4-3 after the first seven races.

Sean Flanagan knows what it feels like to be the fastest thing on four legs – and none at all. Here, Daily Mail Sport’s Dominic King chats to the pilot (in both senses of the word) looking for land-based success this week at Cheltenham.

The Champion Chase contender has his fair share of fans, and among them is trainer Paul Nicholls, who has stable star No Drama This End running in the Novices’ Hurdle, the first race of the day.

He spoke to Betfair about the horse’s prospects, should you be dithering between the Willie Mullins-trained mount and rival L’Eau Du Sud.

The Queen Mother Champion Chase is the big race on Wednesday and with Marine Nationale not defending his crown, Majborough is top of the market. The way Majborough ran at Leopardstown last time, it wouldn’t have mattered if Marine Nationale had run or not on Wednesday as I feel Majborough is an absolute certainty. He has got to jump round but his jumping at Leopardstown was much more assured the last day. He is older and stronger and wiser and will be very hard to beat.

Majborough is the horse I am most looking forward to seeing but I’m looking forward to watching all the great Cheltenham Festival races on the card on Wednesday.

Jon Pullin, Clerk of the Course, gives his verdict on Ladies Day.

It’s officially good to soft, good in places – and as well yesterday, an optimistic swirl of blue skies and greyer clouds above.

… than they were in Champions League action on Tuesday night.

In one of the more surreal pieces of Cheltenham content, Tottenham players were called upon to guess which man in a line-up was National Hunt jockey Aidan Coleman.

What is raceday without tips? Keep a keen eye on recommendations from Daily Mail Sport’s crack tipster Steve Ryder – AKA Robin Goodfellow – by taking a leaf through his suggestions, below.

Can something as simple as a name change really do so much damage? In 2024, Ladies Day rebranded as ‘Style Wednesday’ – which coincided with historically low attendance, and calls that the Festival had ‘gone woke’.

Adamant that the return to Ladies Day this year is not a social justice u-turn, the organisers will be happier to note that there was a significant interest in pre-bought tickets by women, which rose to 33 per cent from 25 per cent last year.

Rachael Blackmore, so-called Queen of Cheltenham, has also been appointed ‘Head of Ladies Day’ in a drive to boost sales.

After a cup of coffee, there’s few things that set you up for the day better than a peruse of Cheltenham Breakfast, Daily Mail Sport’s Dominic King’s lowdown on the stories from Day One, and what to watch out for on Day Two.

Most likely enjoyed best with a cup of coffee, for that matter.

Henry de Bromhead’s offering for the 2pm will be Koktail Divin only, after his stablemate The Big Westerner’s withdrawal.

Majborough disappointed his backers after a star-crossed run in the Arkle here last year, but blew the competition out of the water with a gilded trip at Leopardstown in February.

There, he beat 2025 Champion Chase winner Marine National by 19 lengths. But will the real Majborough please stand up?

I can’t wait (to ride him). He showed us the real Majborough last time at Leopardstown, and let’s hope the real Majborough shows up again today.

He’s just got such a big long stride, I just tried to hold him up a bit (before, at Cork). (But) last time I let him straight on, he jumped straight, and won well.

Hello and welcome to Daily Mail’s live coverage of Day Two of this year’s Cheltenham Festival, which treats us to not one but two Grade 1 contests in the form of the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, and the Champion Chase.

It’s the latter which provides the showpiece race on Ladies Day, which should a prove a terrific clash as Willie Mullins-trained Majborough goes toe-to-toe with Dan Skelton’s L’Eau Du Sud.

After a perfect start yesterday, can Day Two better it? Stick with us to find out as we bring you all the tips, build-up, and race action as it comes.