THE FESTIVAL 2017 MEDIA GUIDE

THE FIRST RACE AT THE CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL TO
CATER FOR HIGH-CLASS TWO-MILE CHASERS WAS THE
COVENTRY CUP, INTRODUCED IN 1928 AND RUN FOR
NINE YEARS.
It became the unofficial championship
for the distance and appropriately the
first running went to the remarkable
Dudley, who raced for nine seasons
and won 44 races, a record that stood
until Crudwell beat it in 1959.
Dudley won bumpers, over hurdles
and up to three miles over fences, but
was best over two. The 1928 Coventry
Cup – in which he beat future Grand
National winner Grakle, with the
previous year’s Gold Cup winner
Thrown In further back - was his third
win at the Festival; his Grand Annuals
in 1924 and 1925 were part of a 15-race
win streak.
With the emphasis very much on
stamina in those days, the Coventry
Cup fields were often small, even if
select. In the second running another
top-notch early two-miler, Rathcoole –
who had beaten Dudley a short-head
at Manchester the previous season –
finished alone when his sole rival fell
and in 1934 Thomond II walked over.
Blaris, who won the first Champion
Hurdle in 1927, won the Coventry Cup
in 1930.
There was not another conditions
chase over the minimum distance until
1959, when the National Hunt Two-
Mile Champion Chase was created,
replacing the NH Juvenile Chase for
four-year-olds in the March meeting’s
programme. It was run under its first
title until 1979, after which The Queen
Mother’s name was added in honour
of her 80th birthday.
The first running in 1959 was worth
£2,172 to the all-the-way Dan Mooretrained
winner Quita Que, who had
finished second in the Champion
Hurdle two years earlier. The Queen
Mother Champion Chase was first
sponsored in 2008 by Seasons
Holidays, followed by SportingBet
(2011-2013), BetVictor (2014) and
Betway (2015-present). The first prize
on offer in 2017 is £199,325.
Two-mile chasing is a specialist
discipline and, of The Festival’s senior
championships, it has produced the
smallest fields and the most multiple
winners. The largest field was in 1999,
when the Paul Nicholls-trained Call
Equiname beat 12 rivals, and on six
occasions (1961, 1963, 1964, 1968, 1972
and 1985) five faced the starter.
The Queen Mother Champion Chase is
usually a genuine title decider. Some
top-class two-milers, though, have
not won it; such as Tingle Creek and
Desert Orchid who did not always
show their best over Cheltenham’s
undulations.
The contest is often overshadowed
by the Gold Cup in public eyes, but
two miles round Cheltenham requires
steel and judgement; there is no room
for error. Sir A P McCoy once called it
“the professionals’ race.”
Only one horse, Badsworth Boy from
1983-85, has won three editions, but
there have been 11 dual winners, the
first being Fortria (1960-61) and the
most recent Sprinter Sacre (2013 &
2016). But numbers are an expression
of quantity, not necessarily quality.
Although Fortria and Sprinter Sacre
were top-class performers, others
such as Drinny’s Double (1967-68),
Skymas (1976-77) and Hilly Way
(1978-79) were not.
Cheltenham Media Guide 2017
Runners and riders in the Betway Queen Mother Champion
Chase during Ladies Day at the 2016 Cheltenham Festival
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