2025 Cheltenham Festival: Day Two Review

Here we are going to be taking a look back at all of the spectacular action from the second day of this year’s Cheltenham Festival.

Following plenty of enthralling action on the opening day of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, all eyes were on the second day of this highly prestigious event at the iconic and historic Cheltenham Racecourse.

The action took place on a day known as ‘Style Wednesday’, also known as ‘Ladies Day’, and the racing got underway with the Turners Novices’ Hurdle before it came to a close with the latest edition of the Weatherbys Champion Bumper which rounded off the action for the second day at the Festival.

The BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase was arguably the standout race taking place on Wednesday once again this year, and it involved the likes of Marine Nationale, Jonbon, and Captain Guinness. It was Jonbon who was widely seen as the leading contender to win the 2025 version of this race, and trainer Nicky Henderson had won it on no less than 6 previous occasions, doing so in 1992 (Remittance Man), 2012 (Finian’s Rainbow), 2013 (Sprinter Sacre), 2016 (Sprinter Sacre), and with Aitor (2018 & 2019).

Here, we are going to be taking a look back at all of the action from all of the seven races that took place at Cheltenham Racecourse on the second day of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival. We will start with the aforementioned Tuners Novices’ Hurdle on the afternoon of Wednesday 12th March 2025.

Racing Highlights

Below are some highlights of the action from the second day of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival at the iconic and historic Cheltenham Festival:

Turners Novices’ Hurdle

We will begin this review with the opening race of day two of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, which was the famous Turners Novices’ Hurdle. It was won the year before by Ballyburn, who was ridden by Paul Townend, whilst having been trained by the acclaimed Willie Mullins. Ballyburn did not participate in the 2025 version of this race.

In the 2025 Turners Novices’ Hurdle, it was The New Lion, ridden by Jockey Harry Skelton who was able to come out on top, whilst the Dan Skelton trained horse was also able to finish ahead of the likes of Jack Kennedy’s The Yellow Clay and pre-race favourite Final Diamond, who was ridden by 2024 winning Jockey Paul Townend, coming in second and third place respectively in the end.

Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase

Next up was the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, the second race to take place on what was day two of the highly anticipated 2025 Cheltenham Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse. In the year before, it was Fact To File, who was ridden by Mark Walsh whilst being trained by Willie Mullins.

This time, it was Lecky Watson who was the winner of the 2025 version of the famous Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, and it is a second successive victory for Willie Mullins as well. It was Jockey Sean O’Keefe who rode Lecky Watson to victory, finishing ahead of Danny Gilligan’s Stellar Story and Jack Kennedy’s Better Days ahead in second and third place respectively overall in the end.

Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle

Race Three on Day Two of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival was the latest edition of the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle at the iconic and historic Cheltenham Racecourse. Back in 2024, it was Langer Dan, ridden by Harry Skelton and trained by Dan Skelton, who had both won with this horse in this very race the year before that in 2023.

In the 2025 version of this race it was Jimmy Du Seuil, who was ridden by jockey Danny Mullins, as well as having been trained by Willie Mullins. It was Nico de Boinville’s Impose Toi, Rachael Blackmore’s Ballyadam, and Bryan Carver’s Beat The Bat, who had to settle for second, third, and fourth place overall in this race in the end.

Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase

The fourth race of the day then came in the form of the 2025 edition of the famous Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase at the iconic Cheltenham Racecourse. This race was not run back in 2024, so the most recent race winner had been Delta Work, who trained by Gordon Elliott won in 2023, which was the second successive victory after doing do in 2022 as well.

In the 2025 Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, it was won by Keith Donoghue on board Stumptown. Donoghue is a prolific winner of this race, having done so on 4 other occasions before this year, having done so three times with Tiger Roll in 2018, 2019, and in 2021, whilst also winning with the aforementioned Delta Work. In fact, he is currently the most successful jockey in this race to date, as of the time of writing.

It was Gina Andrews’ Latenightpass who came in second place, followed by the likes of Sean Flanagan’s Vanillier in third place, rounding off the top three, whilst it was Sean Bowen and The Goffer who came just behind the top three coming in fourth place in the end overall.

BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase

We now arrive at the race that was not only the third to last to be taking place on what was the second day of the highly anticipated 2025 Cheltenham Festival, with the BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase also being the most prestigious race of the day. It was won last year in 2024 by Captain Guinness, who was ridden by Rachael Blackmore, whilst having been trained by Henry de Bromhead.

In the 2025 version of this race, it was Marine Nationale who the horse to come away with victory with Jockey Sean Flanagan, with the winning trainer on this occasion being Barry Connell, who is also the owner of this horse. It was the aforementioned pre-race favourite Jonbon, ridden by jockey Nico de Boinville, who came in second place, and having to settle for being the runner-up, whilst it was Rachael Blackmore’s Captain Guinness who came in third place in the end.

Debenhams Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase

We are now going to be taking a look at the latest running of the Debenhams Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase, which was won last year in 2024 by Harry Skelton’s Unexpected Party, who had been trained by the winning trainer on that day, Dan Skelton.

This year, Unexpected Party was participating in this race once again in this race as the pre-race favourite but came in second place in the end, ahead of Sean Flanagan’s Midnight It Is in third place, whilst Keith Donoghue’s My Mate Mozzie came in third in the end.

The winner of the 2025 race was Jazzy Matty, with the Cian Collins trained horse coming in first place thanks to a spectacular performance from Jockey Danny Gilligan.

Weatherbys Champion Bumper

Finally, we move on to the seventh and final race of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival at the highly prestigious Cheltenham Racecourse. In the 2024, it was Jasmin De Vaux, trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by Patrick Mullins who came out on top in that year’s race.

Willie Mullins was the winning trainer once again in 2025, with the most recent running of this race seeing Jockey Jody Townend coming home in first place on Bambino Fever, ahead of the likes of runner-up Heads Up (Sean Bowen), and Donagh Meyler’s Shuttle Diplomacy, who had to settle for what was a third place finish in the end in order to round off the top three in this race.

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