The Queen Mother Champion Chase is a two-mile test over the bigger fences, run on the old course at Cheltenham. It is the highlight of Cheltenham day two, headlining the action.
While it perhaps doesn’t quite hold the same prestige as the Cheltenham Gold Cup or the Champion Hurdle, it’s definitely a strong contender for the third-best race of the festival.
We’ve seen some brilliant winners in the past, and the nature of the race means this test also has the potential to bring great drama.
A Grade One contest, there are 13 fences to jump, and it is open to horses aged five years old and up. It has not always been called the Queen Mother Champion Chase, as you’ll discover shortly.
Race Facts
The race is run left-handed around Cheltenham’s Old Course. It lasts for 3,218 metres, which is about two miles. Open to five-year-old horses and older, the weight restriction is eleven stone and ten pounds and there’s a seven pound allowance for mares. It features thirteen fences that must be jumped during the race.
There is scant detail regarding the prize money amount for the winner of the race back in 1959. What we do know is that it has increased exponentially year on year. By 2011 the total pot was up to £320,000 and by 2026 that had moved further to £400,000.
Records For Most Wins
| Record Type | No of Wins | Record Holder |
|---|---|---|
| Horse | 3 | Badsworth Boy |
| Trainer | 6 | Tom Dreaper, Nicky Henderson, Paul Nicholls |
| Jockey | 5 | Pat Taaffe & Barry Geraghty |
Race Trends: Winners Since 2000
Previous Winners
| Year | Winner | Age | Odds | Prize | Jockey / Trainer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Il Etait Temps | 8 | 5/2 | £225,080 |
J: P Townend
T: W P Mullins
|
| 2025 | Marine Nationale | 8 | 5/1 | £226,944 |
J: S W Flanagan
T: B Connell
|
| 2024 | Captain Guinness | 9 | 17/2 | £225,080 |
J: Rachael Blackmore
T: H De Bromhead
|
| 2023 | Energumene | 9 | 6/5 F | £225,080 |
J: P Townend
T: W P Mullins
|
| 2022 | Energumene | 8 | 5/2 | £225,080 |
J: P Townend
T: W P Mullins
|
| 2021 | Put The Kettle On | 7 | 17/2 | £168,810 |
J: Aidan Coleman
T: H De Bromhead
|
| 2020 | Politologue | 9 | 6/1 | £225,080 |
J: Harry Skelton
T: P F Nicholls
|
| 2019 | Altior | 9 | 4/11 F | £225,080 |
J: N de Boinville
T: N J Henderson
|
| 2018 | Altior | 8 | Evens F | £228,872 |
J: N de Boinville
T: N J Henderson
|
| 2017 | Special Tiara | 10 | 11/1 | £208,300.32 |
J: Noel Fehily
T: H De Bromhead
|
| 2016 | Sprinter Sacre | 10 | 5/1 | £199,325 |
J: N de Boinville
T: N J Henderson
|
| 2015 | Dodging Bullets | 7 | 9/2 | £199,325 |
J: Sam Twiston-Davies
T: P F Nicholls
|
| 2014 | Sire De Grugy | 8 | 11/4 F | £199,325 |
J: Jamie Moore
T: Gary Moore
|
| 2013 | Sprinter Sacre | 7 | 1/4 F | £208,300.32 |
J: Barry Geraghty
T: N J Henderson
|
| 2012 | Finian's Rainbow | 9 | 4/1 | £182,240 |
J: Barry Geraghty
T: N J Henderson
|
| 2011 | Sizing Europe | 9 | 10/1 | £182,432 |
J: A E Lynch
T: H De Bromhead
|
| 2010 | Big Zeb | 9 | 10/1 | £182,432 |
J: Barry Geraghty
T: Colm Murphy
|
| 2009 | Master Minded | 6 | 4/11 F | £182,432 |
J: Ruby Walsh
T: P F Nicholls
|
| 2008 | Master Minded | 5 | 3/1 | £176,762 |
J: Ruby Walsh
T: P F Nicholls
|
| 2007 | Voy Por Ustedes | 6 | 5/1 | £176,762 |
J: Robert Thornton
T: A King
|
| 2006 | Newmill | 8 | 16/1 | £165,358 |
J: Andrew J McNamara
T: John Joseph Murphy
|
| 2005 | Moscow Flyer | 11 | 6/4 F | £145,000 |
J: Barry Geraghty
T: Mrs John Harrington
|
| 2004 | Azertyuiop | 7 | 15/8 | £145,000 |
J: Ruby Walsh
T: P F Nicholls
|
| 2003 | Moscow Flyer | 9 | 7/4 F | £145,000 |
J: Barry Geraghty
T: Mrs John Harrington
|
| 2002 | Flagship Uberalles | 8 | 7/4 F | £127,600 |
J: Richard Johnson
T: Philip Hobbs
|
| 2000 | Edredon Bleu | 8 | 7/2 | £107,300 |
J: A P McCoy
T: Henrietta C Knight
|
Race Trivia
Inaugural Controversy
The winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1980, its first year under its current title, was Chinrullah. Unfortunately controversy was the only real winner that year as the horse was later disqualified when it tested positive for a substance that was banned
Not Quite A Double For Edredon Bleu
Fate was not on the side of Edredon Bleu back in 2001 Having been victorious in the race in 2000, Edredon Bleu was hoping to follow in the footsteps of the then eight other horses that had won the Queen Mother Champion Chase on more than one occasion. Sadly the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease that year meant that the Festival was cancelled and a replacement race took place at Sandown later in the year. Edredon Bleu won the replacement, but it doesn’t officially count as having done the double
Master Minded At Just 5 Years Old
Master Minded isn’t just a notable horse for being the most recent to win a double in the Queen Mother Champion Chase. When he won the race for the first time in 2008 he was just five-years-old, making him the youngest horse ever to win it
12 Year Old Double
Interestingly, the honour of being the oldest horse ever to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase belongs to a horse that had also managed to do the double. Skymas had already become the oldest horse to win the race when he did so as an eleven-year-old in 1976, but he cemented his place in the history books when he repeated the feat as a twelve-year-old the following year
Queen Mother’s Perfect Race
The Queen Mother’s love of horses was well-known, so it’s appropriate that this National Hunt calendar race, believed by many to be the toughest minimum-distance chase run in the UK and Ireland, is named in her honour.
Willie Mullins Completes The Set
It took him a while but in 2022 Willie Mullins trained Energumene won the Champion Chase to complete the set for Willie Mullins who has now won all the Championship races at Cheltenham. Not only that, Energumene then won again in 2023 to join the club of great horses that have won this race twice or more. By 2026 Mullins and Townend had won this three times together thanks to Il Etait Temps victory. I wonder if he will eventually take the trainer record in this one too?
Blackmore Does It Again
When Rachel Blackmore became the first female jockey to win a Championship race when she roe Honeysuckle to victory twice in the Champion Hurdle she had already cemented her place in Cheltenham history. Not content with that she went on to ride the winner in the Gold Cup in 2022 with A Plus Tard and then the Champion Chase in 2024 with Captain Guinness. The best female jumps jockey in history? You would get few who would argue that point now.
Queen Mother Champion Chase History
The race was run for the first time back in 1959. At that point, though, it wasn’t called the Queen Mother Champion Chase but rather the National Hunt Two-Miles Champion Chase. It wasn’t renamed until 1980 when its title was given in honour of the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday. She was a big supporter or jump racing and had owned numerous National Hunt horses over the years. In fact, the horse that finished second in 1976, Game Spirit, was owned by the Queen Mother.
Prior to 2007 the The Queen Mother Champion Chase had resolutely avoided sponsorship, but eventually it succumbed when the event organisers were made an offer that was too good to resist by Seasons Holidays. They remained the sponsor until 2011 when the online gambling firm Sportingbet took it over. Fellow betting company BetVictor sponsored the race in 2014 and then Betway became sponsors from 2015 onwards. In 2025 they relinquished those duties over to BetMGM.
Compared to the other ‘Big Four’ races of the Cheltenham Festival the Queen Mother Champion Chase tends to run with a smaller field. It was not unheard of in the 1960s and 1970s for only five horses to race, whilst the largest field was thirteen in 1999.
If you’re looking for a tip on how to back a winner in the Queen Mother Champion Chase then we’ll point you towards the winner of the previous year’s Ankle Trophy. At the time of writing the previous twelve winners of that event who have gone on to run the Queen Mother Champion Chase the following season have all managed to finish within the first three horses. That includes five winners and five runners-up, so if you stick an each-way bet on the winner of the Arkle Trophy the year before you’re there then you’ve got a very realistic chance of getting your money back at the very least.
What makes the Queen Mother Champion Chase so thrilling to watch is a combination of things. Firstly, the fact that the field is relatively small means that there’s a very real chance that you’ll get to see some top-class horses in the running. It’s worth bearing in mind that the race’s winner has often been rated more highly be the handicappers than the horse that wins the Gold Cup or the King George. Secondly, the comparatively short length of the race means that the horses get to go virtually flat out, allowing for a fast-paced and exciting ride.
Race Named after Queen Mother for Her 80th Birthday
You might be wondering where the name Queen Mother Champion Chase comes from, and it’s quite a simple story.
The Queen Mother was always a big supporter of racing. She owned many horses over the years, including plenty over jumps.
She would actually own the second-place horse from this race in 1976, before it was named after her.
When she turned 80, British racing wanted to show its respect for her by gifting her something special, and this is where the idea of naming the race came up.
To celebrate her partnership and love of racing, this race became the Queen Mother Champion Chase in the year she turned 80.
Drama in First Ever Queen Mother Champion Chase
This race dates back to 1959 as a contest, but prior to 1980, it was run under a different name, the National Hunt Two Miles Champion Chase.
When the name switched to the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1980, the first running under this new name gave us plenty of drama, a sign of what we’d see in the race over the coming years.
Chinrullah was the horse that crossed the line first that day. However, he would later be disqualified after testing positive for a banned substance during a test.
Famous Queen Mother Champion Chase Winners
To date, only one horse has won the Queen Mother Champion Chase three times. It’s perhaps even more surprising, therefore, that when Badsworth Boy managed that achievement he did so on consecutive occasions in 1983, 1984 and 1985. There have been thirteen double-winners of the event since its inauguration in 1959. These include Fortria, who was the first horse to manage this honour in 1960 and 1961, Skymas who did it in 1976 and 1977, Master Minded, who pulled it off in 2008 and 2009, Altior who did it in 2018 and 2019 and most recently Energumene who did it in 2022 and 2023.
Notable mentions should also go to Royal Relief, the aptly named horse as far as this race is concerned who became the first to regain the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1974, having first won it in 1972. That didn’t happen again for more than twenty years, when Moscow Flyer achieved it in 2003 and 2005. One of the most impressive regains of the trophy was achieved by Sprinter Sacre in the 2010s. Having first won the race in 2013 as a seven-year-old, they were victorious once more as a ten-year-old in 2016.
Master Minded the Youngest Winner and One of the Best
.jpg){kind=link}
The Paul Nicholls-trained Master Minded was a French recruit who hit the UK with a massive reputation, and thankfully for Nicholls, he definitely lived up to it.
A multiple Grade One winner in the UK, he would headline his career with back-to-back wins in the Queen Mother Champion Chase. The first of those came in 2008, when the race was actually run on Thursday after high winds cancelled Wednesday’s card, and he would then back it up with another win 12 months later.
While he’ll be remembered as a great two-miler, his first win in this race also puts him in the record books for another reason.
Winning the contest as a five-year-old means that he’s the youngest winner of the race, a record that still hasn’t been beaten. Aided by his early French career, where chasing as a four-year-old is common, he came over to Britain with experience under his belt. In contrast, British five-year-olds were generally in their novice chase year, or even still over hurdles.
His 2008 success remains one of my favourite racing memories.
The Arkle to Champion Chase Pathway
If you want to find future winners of the Champion Chase, then you should look no further than the Arkle Chase, which takes place on the opening day of the festival.
This novice race over two miles is the perfect breeding ground for future winners of this Championship race. Ran on the same course, over the same distance, it’s the perfect starting point, and plenty of horses have managed success in both races over the years.
Seven horses have won the Arkle Chase and the Champion Chase in their careers since the year 2000, with plenty more doing it before that.
Four of the seven would win the Champion Chase once. After winning the Arkle, they were Azertyuiop (2004), Voy Por Ustedes (2007), Sizing Europe (2011), and Put the Kettle On (2021).
However, three others have gone even better. After winning the Arkle, they’ve become dual Champion Chase winners. Moscow Flyer (2003, 2005), Sprinter Sacre (2013, 2016) and Altior (2018, 2019) are the three to do this, all regarded as legends of the sport for their successes.