The 2-mile chase championship is contested on the Wednesday of the festival on the old course and there are 12 fences to be jumped. The race was named after the Queen Mother in 1980 (the year of her 80th birthday) in recognition of her support of jumps racing down the years. please log in to view this image The most successful horse in the history of the race is Badsworth Boy, who won 3 titles from 1983-85. There have been numerous dual winners, including Master Minded, Moscow Flyer, Viking Flagship, Barnbrook Again, Pearlyman, Fortria and of course The Black Aeroplane, Sprinter Sacre. The most successful jockeys in the race have been Pat Taaffe and Barry Geraghty (5 wins apiece) and the most successful trainer Tom Dreaper with 6 wins. The reigning champion and hot favourite is Altior and it would be a major surprise if he were to be beaten here. Nicky Henderson's charge is rated 175 and has a string of 16 "1s" in his form record (this might well be 17 come Saturday afternoon's Clarence House Chase). He goes on all ground, jumps superbly and can quicken to deadly effect off any pace. He seems absolutely bombproof and his current odds of around 4/9 reflect his superiority. The next highest rated horses in the field, on 168, are Un de Sceaux (already beaten by Altior in the Tingle Creek) and Politologue (last seen in the King George and surely Ryanair bound?) ahead of Fox Norton (also due to run in the Clarence House Chase) and Min (7 lengths 2nd last year and possibly a Ryanair runner). Next on ratings is probably the disappointment of the season so far, Footpad, who looked imperious as a novice but has only managed F2 in 2 runs this season. He suffered an over-reach before falling on debut and looked all over the winner at Christmas before tiring or idling late on and being collared by Simply Ned. He will need to step up markedly on that to even justify his 165 rating, never mind trouble Altior but he is certainly in the right hands and will hopefully be back to his best come March. I would love to see Sceau Royal have some genuinely good racing ground to contest this (any chance he had in the Tingle Creek was ruined by the rain) as I think he is the one horse who could lay up and trouble Altior late on, but he is very ground dependent. Probably a small field and a procession for Altior, so no real betting proposition. Just watch and enjoy.
Altior to win carrying a piano with a cigar in his mouth ps nice write up Oddy, the old lady always looked rather dashing in blue
Only injury or an act if God stops Altior winning here. Let's admire, enjoy him and not trouble out minds finding an alternative.
Disappointing to see Footpad is not taking up his entry in this and goes for the lesser race. Ducking a challenge here me thinks..
