Summary

  • Feature race: Buveur D'Air (4-6f) retains Champion Hurdle title

  • Favourite Coo Star Sivola triumphs in Handicap Chase

  • Ruby Walsh wins on Footpad (5-6f) & Benie Des Dieux (9-2)

  • Summerville Boy (9-1) takes Supreme Novices' Hurdle

Live Reporting

Mike Henson

  1. The big one

    Buveur D'AirPA

    And we open with Champion Day, with the Champion Hurdle going off at 15:30 GMT as the feature race.

    Some have it down as a coronation rather than a contest.

    Buveur D'Air is back and the challengers to the Nicky Henderson-trained defending champion are keeping a low profile.

    But trainer Willy Mullins has crossed the Irish Sea with four prospects aimed at today's big one and plans aplenty.

    Could Faugheen - the 2015 winner - make the most popular comeback since Elvis donned black leather and sauntered up to the microphone in 1968?

    We shall see...

  2. Festival vibes

    Fan at CheltenhamPA

    As we slip from the icy clutches of the Beast from the East, what better way to warm up than with the Fest from the West (of Swindon anyway).

    Four days of racing. 28 races. 260,000 spectators. A record £4.6m of prize money. Five tonnes of salmon (fresh and smoked).

    However you carve it, it is a mouth-watering smorgasbord of sporting action.

    Welcome to Cheltenham.