Champion Chase Tips

  • 15/03/2023
  • -:--

This racing preview focuses on Queen Mother Champion Chase betting tips, coming up on Ladies’ Day at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival.

Our racing experts look over the big players who could be competing for one of the Festival’s top prizes.

Queen Mother Champion Chase tips include both the frontrunners and those with some each-way dark horse potential in this significant Grade 1 feature race.

We have not reached the stage of the complete list of runners being released for the Queen Mother Champion Chase 2023, but a look at the ante-post is still on the table.

Will last year’s winner Energumene reign supreme again? Or will there be a new name etched into the history of the race? 


Queen Mother Champion Chase Betting Tips – Overlooked Outsiders

There is always a cracking field to look through for the Grade 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase odds.

It is such a great race, but our Cheltenham tipsters are not just going to solely focus on the contenders at the head of the market.

We will also browse through some overlooked outsiders because, occasionally, a longer-priced winner comes through.

The most recent of those was Special Tiara in 2017 when the 10-year-old came through for trainer Henry de Bromhead from an 11/1 SP.

Considering that just three of the last ten winners have won at odds of 6/1+, that was a notable underdog success.

Closer to the time of the Cheltenham Festival 2023, our complete Queen Mother racing tips will be released. 

A look at this year’s underdogs will be available closer to the race.


Queen Mother Champion Chase Runners – Wednesday 15th January 3:30

Horse/Form Silks Jockey/Trainer Odds
Edwardstone

12-1U2

Horse Profile - Jockey Colours J: Tom Cannon
T: Alan King
6/4
Energumene

21-113

Horse Profile - Jockey Colours J: Paul Townend
T: Willie Mullins
13/8
Editeur Du Gite

4P-3111

Horse Profile - Jockey Colours J: Niall Houlihan
T: Gary Moore
9/2
Nube Negra

143-12

Horse Profile - Jockey Colours J: Harry Skelton
T: Dan Skelton
20/1
Greaneteen

51-123

Horse Profile - Jockey Colours J: Harry Cobden
T: Paul Nicholls
20/1
Funambule Sivola

P-6451

Horse Profile - Jockey Colours J: Charlie Deutsch
T:
Venetia Williams
33/1
Captain Guinness

16-412

Horse Profile - Jockey Colours J: Rachael Blackmore
T: Henry De Bromhead
40/1

The Queen Mother Champion Chase betting market for ante-post odds can be studied right now. It gives some indicators of how the final line-up could look once the declarations are in.

Early entries help, and the current frontrunner in Queen Mother Champion Chase betting is last year’s winner Energumene. If he returns in the same form as last year, he should take a fair bit of stopping. 

Having only tasted defeat once in his career, he followed up his victory in this last year with another Grade 1 Champion Chase win at Punchestown the following month, and has returned this season with a facile victory in the Grade 2 Hilly Way Chase at Cork. 

His biggest danger could come from Edwardstone, who won the Arkle at last year’s Festival and has already won a Grade 1 this season in the Tingle Creek Chase. 

Among other potential entries for the Champion Chase, Blue Lord, Greaneteen and Editeur Du Gite have all seen plenty of early ante-post market interest.

Closer to the Festival, we will know the complete line-up for the Queen Mother Champion Chase betting. 

It will be something exceptional if last year’s winner Energumene comes up against Arkle winner Edwardstone once more.


How to pick a Queen Mother Champion Chase winner

Looking at the Queen Mother Champion Chase tips that our experts have recommended will be a good start for racing betting.

Our tipsters will be scouring all the top stats, trends and forms as some key ones to bear in mind.

There have been four favourites winning in the last ten editions and two in the previous five. Granted, they were both delivered by the brilliant Altior in 2018 and 2019.


Last 10 Queen mother Champion Chase Winner Odds

  • 2022 Energumene 5/2
  • 2021 Put The Kettle On 17/2
  • 2020 Politologue 6/1
  • 2019 Altior 4/11F
  • 2018 Altior Even Money Fav
  • 2017 Special Tiara 11/1
  • 2016 Sprinter Sacre 5/1
  • 2015 Dodging Bullets
  • 2014 Sire De Grugy 11/4F
  • 2013 Sprinter Sacre 1/4F

Interestingly, this is a race in which the last ten editions haven’t seen an age group dominate. Both 7YO’s and 8YO’s have won three of the last ten renewals apiece, with 2 x 9YO winners and 2 x 10YO winners in that timeframe. 

There hasn’t been a Queen Mother Champion Chase winner at more than 16/1 in the last 20 editions, and each of the previous 20 winners have been in the top six in the betting market at the off. 

The last win that each of those winners had was in a Graded race. There have only been two female entrants in the previous 20 Queen Mother renewals, but one of those did win. That was 2021’s history-making, Put The Kettle On.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg for Queen Mother Championship Chase tip indicators. Our betting experts will have plenty more to study.


All About The Queen Mother Champion Chase: Past and Present

The Queen Mother Champion Chase is one of the biggest races in Great Britain, and it’s a Grade 1 chase open to horses 5-years-old and up.

Bookmaker Betway currently sponsors the race, and it is held on the turf of Cheltenham’s Old Course at the minimum-chase distance of 2 miles with 13 fences to be faced.

The inaugural edition of this special National Hunt race was in 1969, and it was in 1980 that it was given the title of the Queen Mother to celebrate the Royal’s 80th birthday. 

The only horse to have won the Queen Mother Champion Chase on three occasions is Badsworth Boy, who won it for three consecutive years in the mid-80’s. Joint most-successful jockeys are Pat Taaffe and Barry Geraghty, with five each. But Nico de Boinville is the current hot ticket, with three wins in the last seven renewals.

Tom Dreaper, Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson are the joint all-time leading trainers in the Queen Mother with five winners each.


How Do Horses Qualify For The Queen Mother Champion Chase?

This Grade 1 contest is open to five-year-olds and up, and both males and female horses can participate. There is a 7lb allowance for mares, while the males get 11st 10lb weight.

What is the Queen Mother Champion Chase Prize Money in 2023?

Given the status of this race, there is always a vast prize purse attached to it. We await details of what 2023’s will be. Last year’s winner Energumene took £226,672 with the other payouts being 2nd £86,392, 3rd £44,032, 4th £22,792 and 5th £12,232.


Queen Mother Champion Chase Past Winners

We are talking about some elite Cheltenham Festival winners, including the phenomenal hattrick-scoring Badsworth Boy back in the 1980s. The outstanding Moscow Flyer won this twice in 2003 and 2005.

Masterminded became the first 5-year-old to land the Queen Mother Champion Chase with a win in 2008, and he went back the following year to successfully defend.

Sizing Europe, Dodging Bullet and Sprinter Sacre are among other famous winners. But one of the greats will always be Nicky Henderson’s Altior, who thrilled the Festival with wins in 2018 and 2019.

Year Horse Odds Jockey Trainer
2022 Energumene 5/2 Paul Townend Willie Mullins
2021 Put The Kettle On 17/2 Aidan Coleman Henry de Bromhead
2020 Politologue 6/1 Harry Skelton Paul Nicholls
2019 Altior 4/11F Nico de Boinville Nicky Henderson
2018 Altior 1/1F Nico de Boinville Nicky Henderson
2017 Special Tiara 11/1 Noel Fehily Henry De Bromhead
2016 Sprinter Sacre 5/1 Nico de Boinville Nicky Henderson
2015 Dodging Bullets 9/2 Sam Twiston-Davies Paul Nicholls
2014 Sire De Grugy 11/4F Jamie Moore Gary Moore
2013 Sprinter Sacre 1/4F Barry Geraghty Nicky Henderson
2012 Finians Rainbow 4/1 Barry Geraghty Nicky Henderson
2011 Sizing Europe 10/1 A E Lynch Henry De Bromhead

Other Races on Day 2 of the Cheltenham Festival

The Queen Mother Champion Chase is the feature race of Day 2. Here are the rest of the races for Wednesday at the Festival:

13:30 The Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle Race (Grade 1)

14:10 The Brown Advisory Novices’ Steeple Chase (Grade 1)

14:50 The Coral Cup Hurdle (A Handicap Hurdle Race) (Grade 3)

15:30 The Betway Queen Mother Champion Steeplechase (Grade 1)

16:10 The Glenfarclas Cross Country Steeplechase

16:50 The Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Steeple Chase Challenge Cup (Grade 3)

17:30 The Weatherbys Champion Bumper (A Standard Open NH Flat Race) (Grade 1)