Queen Mother Champion Chase is one of the more popular and high
profile events held on the second
day of the Cheltenham Festival. It’s seen as ‘one to watch’ and is a
Grade 1 national hunt steeplechase race. The Queen Mum was known to be
very fond of her racing of course and so there is a certain fondness for
the race (renamed from ‘National Hunt Two-Mile Champion Chase’ to the
current name in 1980 to celebrate her 80th birthday) on account of that
in my view. The length to be covered by horses competing in the Champion
Chase is two miles or 3.219 kilometers. It’s a race limited to horses
that are more than
five years old.

The Queen
Mother Champion Chase is one of the four championship
races of the Cheltenham Festival held in March. As the ‘featured race’ on the second
day of the festival, it attracts much attention from the
visitors to the event, bookmakers on and off course, punters and of course the media including
television, newspapers and online interest. The sponsor of this race this year was Betway, and 10 horses
competed (fewer than years previous) and there are twelve fence to traverse.

The
total purse for the Queen Mother Champion Chase is a very healthy
£400,000 with the
winner of the race getting £225,080 – not bad for a day’s work. Like
most popular horse racing events in the UK, a large number of bets are
placed on the Queen Mother Champion
Chase from those in the know and those not so in the know (most of us!).
Factors such as the owner, trainer, pedigree of the horse and current
form can all play a part when deciding to have a punt, and of course the
bookies have a close eye on all of those too! Most successful horse
over the course’s history is Badsworth Boy, winner in 1983, 84 and 85.
2016’s winner was 10 year old Sprinter Sacre, ridden by Nico de
Boinville, trained by Nicky Henderson and Caroline Mould. Marine Nationale was the winner in 2025.