For aficionados of National Hunt racing, the Queen Mother Champion Chase probably requires little or no introduction. However, for the uninitiated, the Queen Mother Champion Chase is a Grade 1 steeplechase run over 1 mile, 7 furlongs and 199 yards on the Old Course at Cheltenham in March. Open to horses aged five years and upwards, the race is considered to be the championship race of the season in the two-mile steeplechasing division and forms the highlight of day two of the Cheltenham Festival.
The Queen Mother Champion Chase was inugurated, as the National Hunt Two-Mile Champion Chase, in 1959, but was renamed in 1980 to celebrate the eightieth birthday of the late Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. As might be expected, the roll of honour features some of the highest-rated minimum-distance steeplechasers in history, including Flyingbolt, Moscow Flyer and Sprinter Sacre, to name but three.
The most successful horse in the history of the Queen Mother Champion Chase was Badsworth Boy – trained by Michael Dickinson and subsequently by his mother, Monica – who completed an unprecedented hat-trick in 1983, 1984 and 1985. Tom Dreaper, trainer of Flyingbolt, Nicky Henderson, trainer of Sprinter Sacre, and Paul Nicholls jointly hold the record as the most successful handlers, having saddled six winners apiece.
The 2023 renewal of the Queen Mother Champion Chase is scheduled for 3.30pm on Ladies’ Day, Wednesday, March 15, but the ante-post market is already well formed, with defending champion Energumene, unsurprisingly, at the head of affairs. Shiskin, who flopped dismally when odds-on favourite for the 2022, is on a retrieval mission, while other leading fancies include former Weatherbys Champion winner Ferny Hollow, who remains unexposed over obstacles.