After a captivating Day One of the Cheltenham Festival where we saw both Constitution Hill and State Man take crashing falls in the Champion Hurdle, the drama continued on Day Two as more of the high profile favourites suffered shock defeats.
Ballyburn was sent off at prohibitive odds of 4/7 in the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase but refused to settle in the early stages of the race and never jumped with any fluency. Paul Townend persevered with his mount until being hampered on the back straight, from that point onwards it looked a hopeless task. Ballyburn continued to jump slowly and could never get into contention, finishing fifth, 9 lengths behind 20/1 stablemate Lecky Watson who claimed a surprise win.
Favourite backers suffered a similar fate shortly after Jonbon was sent off as the 5/6 favourite for the Champion Chase. After a standing start, Jonbon missed the kick and found himself much further back than Nico de Boinville would've wanted. His jumping also lacked conviction and after a shuddering error on the final circuit his chance of tasting festival glory, once again, went up in smoke. Marine Nationale capitalised on the opportunity for a poignant victory as we were reminded of how the late Michael O'Sullivan had ridden Marine Nationale to victory in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle two years ago.
Bookmakers are having one of the most lucrative Cheltenham Festivals in recent years and they'll surely be keen to take on the big favourites on Day Three; Fact To File (Ryanair Chase) and Teahupoo (Stayers' Hurdle). Both won at the festival last year but face superior opposition this time around. You'd be a brave man to take a short-price about either with the events of the last two days still fresh in the memory.