An Irish trainer to watch on day 2 of the Cheltenham Festival

Wednesday marks Day 2 of the Cheltenham Festival and we have another seven excellent races to get stuck into.

Get €60 in FREE BETS with BetVictor

It could be worth keeping an eye on Joseph O’Brien, as he has a small but select team and some very strong chances.

He has just three runners at Cheltenham on Wednesday but none of them are bigger than 12/1 and one has been named several times on the preview circuits.

Here we take a closer look at their chances of coming out on top.

Coral Cup - 2.40 Cheltenham

Comfort Zone was a fair juvenile hurdler a couple of seasons ago and he has since been campaigned across both codes. You can’t help but feel connections have been plotting this move as he’s pretty well supported in the market and hasn’t been seen since finishing third at Leopardstown in December.

That performance was pretty solid but you would imagine he’ll need to find some improvement to feature in this fiercely competitive event. A mark of 137 certainly isn’t a freebie but O’Brien is a shrewd operator and you would imagine he’ll be prepared to perfection.

The JP McManus-owned six-year-old won a valuable premier handicap over two miles on the Flat in October and had plenty in hand that day. He travelled strongly throughout and won comfortably, despite having to wait for room at a key stage.

Cross Country Chase - 3.20 Cheltenham

Busselton has been mentioned by lots of people on the Cheltenham Festival preview circuit and his price continues to shorten. Connections gave him a couple of sighters of the Cross Country course earlier on in the season and he was never put in the race to win on either occasion.

Now down to a mark of 138, it seems likely that he’ll be ridden a bit more aggressively this time around. He prepared for this with a run over hurdles which should put him spot on now but clearly they wanted his chase rating to remain unchanged.

Previous experience of the course is often a significantly important factor to consider when trying to pick out the winner of this race and with that now in the bag, perhaps we’ll see what he’s really capable of here.

Queen Mother Champion Chase - 4.00 Cheltenham

Solness might be the forgotten horse here, despite winning two Grade 1s over 2m1f at Leopardstown this season. This horse has shown astronomical improvement in his last two starts, going from a handicapper to a bonafide top level performer.

He came over to England for the Tingle Creek in December and was firmly put in his place that day by Jonbon, which is a legitimate concern, as the second and third have both been well beaten since, although in the case of Quilixios, that defeat was enforced by Solness himself.

O'Brien's gelding proved his defeat of Gaelic Warrior and Marine Nationale in the Paddy Power Rewards Club Chase was no fluke by comfortably dispatching both of them at the Dublin Racing Festival. Jonbon will be a tough nut to crack but he might be the best of the Irish.

Get €60 in FREE BETS with the BetVictor sign up offer: