Queen Mother Champion Chase

The Queen Mother Champion Chase is the feature race on the second day of action at the Cheltenham Festival. The race was first established in 1959 and was initially named the National Hunt Two-Mile Champion Chase. It is widely considered the most prestigious minimum-distance chase in the National Hunt calendar every year.

Queen Mother Champion Chase Overview

The Queen Mother Champion Chase is a Grade One chase for horses aged five years or older, normally run as the fourth race on day two (Wednesday) of the Festival. The race is run on the old course over a distance of 1 mile 7 furlongs and 199 yards with a total of thirteen fences to be jumped.

The winner’s first-place prize money is likely to be in the region of £225,000. It is the leading two-mile chase in the National Hunt calendar with the winner laying claim to being the fastest two-mile chaser around.

Queen Mother Champion Chase Betting Trends and Statistics

• The trainers to note here are Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls who have both won the race six times whilst Henry De Bromhead has taken the race three times including last year with Captain Guinness.
• Previous Festival winners have a good record with 14 of the past 24 winners having won here before.
• Only one horse in the last 13 years has won the race at double-figure odds (Special Tiara 11/1) and the market provides mixed messages with four favourites winning in the last 11 years. However, there have been six odds on chances beaten within the same period including last year when Energumene pulled up as a 2/9 favourite.
• The previous season’s Arkle Novice Chase winners have a good record when taking on their elders with 7 winning from just 13 attempts.
• Second-season chasers have a good record in the race winning 14 times in the last 22 years.

Queen Mother Champion Chase History

The race was first run in 1959 as the National Hunt Two-Mile Chase but was given its current title in 1980, the year of the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday, in recognition of her support for and ownership of National Hunt horses.

The race was not sponsored until 2008 when it was taken over by Seasons Holidays. Sponsors since then have been bookmakers Sportingbet, BetVictor with the current sponsor Betway taking over in 2014.

There have been some magnificent jumpers who have won this event over the years which include, Badsworth Boy (1983 & 1985), Barnbrook Again (1989 & 1990), Viking Flagship (1994 & 1995), One Man (1998), Moscow Flyer (2002 & 2005), Master Minded (2008 & 2009), Sprinter Sacre (2016), Altior (2018 & 2019) and Energumene (2022 & 2023).

Queen Mother Champion Chase Winners