Cheltenham - Queen Mother Champion Chase

One of the true highlights of the week and the pinnacle of the second day of the Festival - the Queen Mother Champion Chase is run over the bare 2M at a fast and furious pace despite usually being one of the smaller fields at the Festival.

This race provides the perfect foil to the stamina sapping RSA Chase which precedes it and the race has produced some memorable races and finishes and horses which will go down amongst the greats at Prestbury Park. The Queen Mother’s name was added to the race title in 1980, the year of her 80th birthday and as a real National Hunt aficionado she would have appreciated winners like Master Minded (2008 and 2009), Moscow Flyer (2003 and 2005) and the flying grey One Man (1998).

Not only is the race a great spectacle with pace and jumping at a premium but it has also provided punters with some very solid results with 10 of the last 12 winners starting at no bigger than 5/1, although favourite backers were disappointed last year when Master Minded going for a hat-trick in the race could only finish fourth to Irish challenger Big Zeb who looks set to return in an attempt to follow up this year and he will no doubt attract plenty of Cheltenham 2011 bets.

Although Master Minded suffered that reverse last year his trainer Paul Nicholls still has a terrific record in the race, having saddled four winners of the race and he still holds a particularly strong hand this year with four of the 21 entries – Master Minded, progressive Woolcombe Folly who notched an impressive victory in a Cheltenham handicap chase at The International Meeting, Grade One winner Tataniano and Tchico Polos.

Top class horses run in this race and it takes top class form to win it 8 of the last 9 winners were officially rated 160+ and had won a Grade One race before and people should bear this in mind when looking at the Cheltenham racing betting.
Fast, furious, fantastic and classy sum up the Queen Mother Champion Chase the highlight of Day Two of the Cheltenham Festival 2011.