Up the hill, Kyntara begins to open up a lead over Bold Endeavour, with 25-1 shot Monmiral coming through as we approach the last. Cuthbert Dibble is still in contention but fading – and Monmiral catches Kyntara to grab victory by a length!

Greg Wood

3.30 Stayers’ Hurdle

The outcome that every racegoer at Cheltenham will hope to see here is for Paisley Park, the winner in 2019, to return home safe and sound after what seems likely to be the final run of a memorable career. He is currently only 16-1 to do much more than that, however, and bring down the curtain with a second victory in this race on his seventh trip to the Festival. He warmed up for his sixth start in this race with a narrow defeat behind Noble Yeats, the 2022 Grand National winner, in the Cleeve Hurdle at the Trials meeting here in January, and since the winner there is only around 7-1 for today’s race, some will see Emma Lavelle’s 12-year-old as the value bet in the race.

That was only Noble Yeats’s third career start over hurdles, however, and he is entitled to find further improvement for the experience, and both a stronger pace and softer ground are likely to play to his strengths. Crambo, unraced since winning the Grade One Long Walk at Ascot just before Christmas, would be another popular winner as his trainer, Fergal O’Brien, has yet to register a winner at this meeting, while other runners likely to attract support include two more previous winners in Sire Du Berlais and Flooring Porter, but the likely favourite is Teahupoo, third last year after a slightly unfortunate run in the straight. Selection: Noble Yeats.

Greg Wood

2.50 Ryanair Chase

The first of the day’s two Grade One events, and a highly competitive one too, with Envoi Allen, last year’s winner, currently 5-2 favourite for a repeat success, ahead of Banbridge (5-1) and Stage Star (11-2). All three are previous winners at this meeting, and Envoi Allen would be a fourth consecutive winner of this for Cheveley Park Stud, his owner, following successes for Willie Mullins’s Allaho in 2021 and 2022.

Banbridge, meanwhile, took the Martin Pipe Conditionals’ Handicap Hurdle two years ago – a race that was won by Galopin Des Champs, last season’s Gold Cup winner, in 2021 – while Stage Star landed the Turners at the top of the Thursday card 12 months ago. They face a posse of runners with strong form in one or more of the two-and-a-half mile handicap chases that feature at the big meetings earlier in the year, including Fugitif and Ga Law, and Dan Skelton’s Protektorat, third and fifth in the last two running’s of the Gold Cup. Selection: Envoi Allen.

Grey Dawning and Ginny’s Destiny leave Djelo behind, and it looks a two-horse race to the line. Facile Vega is pushing for a place, but at the last, Grey Dawning begins to pull away after the last fence – and holds on to win despite a determined push from from his old rival down the home straight! Djelo comes home in third to complete a very welcome British 1-2-3 in a Grade One race.

Greg Wood

2.10 Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle

This should, in theory at least, be one of the more straightforward Festival handicaps to solve, as a top-four finish in one of the 20 qualifying races during the first part of the season is required to book a place in the final field. The fact that there have been just three winning favourites this century tells a different story, however, and this year’s renewal is as competitive as they come. There has been money this morning for Nigel Twiston-Davies’s Cuthbert Dibble, who arrives on a hat-trick, and he is now vying for favouritism with Dan Skelton’s Le Milos, who bids to give his trainer a third handicap winner at this week’s meeting.

Gordon Elliott’s Cleatus Poolaw – who trivia buffs might be interested to know is named after the most decorated native American to serve in the US Army – ran well into a close second on his handicap debut in the Naas qualifier in last February, but he is up another 9lb here, and while he remains lightly-raced, that could be a tricky extra burden to overcome. At least a dozen more are worthy of inclusion on any shortlist, but I’ll be having a small interest in Farouk D’Alene, a stable companion of Cleatus Poolaw, at around 20-1.

He is lightly-raced for a nine-year-old, having missed a season-and-a-half after a fall in the Grade One Brown Advisory Novice Chase here two years ago, and ran well to finish second when sent back over hurdles in the Leopardstown qualifier in December. He is set to carry top weight, but would not be the first horse by any means to run well in this race from the top of the handicap, and he also has Rob James, one of the best amateurs in the business, taking off 7lb. Selection: Farouk D’Alene.

Greg Wood

1.30 Turners Novice Chase Preview

Having landed the Arkle on Tuesday and the Brown Advisory yesterday, Willie Mullins is looking to complete a clean sweep of the meeting’s Grade One novice chases here with Facile Vega, the likely favourite but at a working person’s price of around 9-4 having been beaten in his last two races. Gaelic Warrior, of course, shrugged off a last-time defeat in the Arkle two days ago, and Facile Vega too also has very strong course form, having won the Bumper here in 2022 before finishing second to Marine Nationale in last year’s Supreme Novice Hurdle. He is stepping up in trip here, however, and faces a couple of very strong opponents in Grey Dawning and Ginny’s Destiny.

Grey Dawning will bid to give Dan Skelton his third winner of the week, and his first in a Festival Grade One since 2019, and arrives on the back of a career-best in a Grade Two at Doncaster in January. He should also probably be on a four-timer, having gone down only narrowly to Ginny’s Destiny on the Old course here in December, having made a momentum-sapping error at the second-last. Selection: Grey Dawning

Preamble

Greg Wood

Good morning from Cheltenham, where the going is improving ever-so-slightly before the third day of this year’s Festival meeting.

After two days on the Old course, the action switches to the New course for the second half of the meeting and the fresh ground is currently described as soft, albeit with some rain expected during the day.

All ground and courses seem to come alike to Willie Mullins’s horses, of course, and having celebrated his 100th winner at the meeting – an achievement that would have been widely regarded as impossible a quarter of a century ago – he can now turn his attention to the personal record of 10 winners at a single Festival, which he set in 2022.

Mullins does not have quite the same firepower to muster as he did on the first two days, and the shortest-priced members of his Thursday team are Facile Vega and Jade De Grugy, both on offer at around 2-1 for the Turners Novice Chase (1.30pm) and Mares’ Novice Hurdle (4.50pm), respectively.

He has plenty with an each-way chance scattered across the seven races, however, and Ireland should secure the four wins required to lift the Prestbury Cup before the afternoon is out. Gordon Elliott will be hoping to chip in to the total – Betterdaysahead, the favourite for the Mares’ Novice Hurdle, is his best chance to get off the mark for the week – while Rachael Blackmore, one of only three riders to have ridden more than a single winner so far, has a favourite’s chance aboard Envoi Allen in the Ryanair at 2.50pm,

The moment we will all be hoping to see, meanwhile, is the hugely popular Paisley Park ending his career with a second win in the Stayers’ Hurdle. He is a 16-1 shot, but much stranger things have happened here in the past.

In other news this morning, Nicky Henderson’s miserable Festival continues and he has now been forced to rule out Sir Gino, the favourite, from tomorrow’s Triumph Hurdle. Shanagh Bob, who was due to contest the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle on the same card, has also been ruled out

For the moment at least, Henderson has seven runners declared to run over the next couple of days – but only No Ordinary Joe, in tomorrow’s Martin Pipe Conditionals’ Handicap Hurdle, is priced up at less than 25-1.

My picks for the third day are here, and you can, as always, follow all the news, views and action here on the Guardian’s liveblog, and we will be under way on the track at 1.30pm.