Fact File: Cheltenham Festival Queen Mother Champion Chase

The Queen Mother Champion Chase is a Grade 1 race held at the Cheltenham Festival in March The race is open to horses aged five-years-old and upwards It is typically run over 1 mile 7 furlongs and 199 yards, or ‘about 2 miles’ The race is run on Cheltenham’s Old Course and comprises 12 steeplechase fences First run in 1959, it was then known as the National Hunt Two-Mile Champion Chase The inaugural running was won by Quita Que, ridden by Bunny Cox and trained by Dan Moore The race was renamed the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1980, to commemorate the Queen Mother’s 80th birthday The oldest horse to win was Skymas, whose second successive victory came in 1977 at the age of 12 Badsworth Boy is the only horse to have won the Champion Chase three times (1983, ‘84, ‘85) Pat Taafe and Barry Geraghty are the leading jockeys in the race’s history, with five wins each Arkle’s trainer Tom Dreaper has the best record, with six winners. His most famous winner is arguably Flying Bolt (1966) In 2001, a replacement for the Champion Chase was run at Sandown, as the Cheltenham Festival had been cancelled due to a Foot and Mouth disease outbreak Edredon Bleu won the race, winning by a short head, as he had done when winning the Champion Chase the year before Crisp won the Champion Chase in 1971 by 25 lengths, two years before his heroic defeat by Red Rum in the Grand National — Subscribe on YouTube: Website: Twitter: & Facebook: Apple Podcasts: SoundCloud:
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