Cheltenham / Editor / 11 March 2009 / Leave a comment Bet Now

After a thrilling first day, Timeform wonder what drama lies in store on day two...

The second day of the 2009 Cheltenham Festival opens with the National Hunt Challenge Chase Cup, in which Jonjo O'Neill's Can't Buy Time currently heads the market. He faces opposition from, amongst others, Coe and Parsons Pistol and will attempt to give the Jackdaws Castle handler his fourth win in the last six renewals.

The second race of the afternoon is the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle, due off at 14:05. In its various guises the Ballymore has dented some big reputations over the years, most recently in 2006 when the then unbeaten Denman had to settle for second behind Nicanor.

Similarities between Denman and Diamond Harry are inevitable with both having won the Challow Hurdle en-route to this race. Nick Williams' six-year-old has first-hand experience of the unique Cheltenham track, having won twice there already this season and he faces Mad Max, another contender defending an unbeaten record. Mad Max took the scalp of current favourite Karabak at Ascot before putting up a much improved effort to win at Newbury. He's had another minor breathing operation since his latest success, and is open to further improvement.

Alan King's Karabak has got better and better with racing, and he can't be left out of calculations in his current mood whilst Willie Mullins runs Mikael D'Haguenet. His best effort came in what was essentially a match with Pandorama in a Grade 1 at Navan in December, defeating his odds-on rival impressively despite still looking to be learning throughout. Two facile successes in Grade 2s followed that although his wins have all come on testing going.

The RSA Chase is covered in depth in Race of The Day, whilst in the Queen Mother Champion Chase last year's champion, Master Minded, is a very short price to make it two from two at the festival. He has swept all aside with the greatest of ease in both of his starts in Grade 1 company this season, producing terrific rounds of jumping on both occasions, and it is difficult to find any chinks in his armour against a field which for the most part has already tried, without success, to test him. His chief opposition could come from the likes of Big Zeb, Tidal Bay, and the ten year old Well Chief.

Handicap hurdle action on the card comes courtesy of both the Coral Cup and the Fred Winter. The former contest sees David Pipe's Lough Derg bidding to defy top-weight off a BHA mark of 163, whilst in the latter Alexander Severus attempts to confirm the eye-catching impression he made when finishing third at Leopardstown last time. Willie Mullins is represented by no less than eight horses in the concluding Weatherbys Champion Bumper, as he bids for his seventh win in the race.