Queen Mother Champion Chase horse racing tips – Copybet
It is the second day of the Cheltenham Festival on Wednesday with another quality seven-race card to take in.
The Queen Mother Champion Chase at 16:00 is the feature and 10 will go to post for the two mile showpiece.
A new champion will be crowned with last year’s winner, Marine Nationale, ruled out due to a late setback.
Majborough – Cheltenham
Leading owner JP McManus has had over 80 Cheltenham Festival winners, but the Queen Mother Champion Chase has surprisingly eluded the Irishman.
However, Majborough looks set to buck that trend, the six-year-old arriving at the Festival off the back of an imperious display in the Dublin Chase at Leopardstown last month, aided by first-time cheekpieces.
The headgear is retained and a repeat of that performance, a 19-length demolition of reigning Champion Chaser Marine Nationale, will surely be good enough.
He ran to a Racing Post Rating of 179 on that occasion, the highest figure any horse has run to this season, and there could potentially be more to come from the 2024 Triumph Hurdle winner, who would have added last season’s Arkle to his already impressive CV, but for a host of disastrous mistakes.
Indeed, jumping has been an issue for the Willie Mullins-trained gelding for much of his chasing career, but things really clicked for him at the Dublin Racing Festival and his confidence ought to have been boosted accordingly.
Stablemate Il Etait Temps is rated within 2lb of Majborough and is fully deserving of his mark of 172, the eight-year-old barely having come off the bridle when landing a Grade 1 double in the Celebration Chase and Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown last year.
However, the diminutive grey already looked in trouble when falling heavily at the second-last in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot in January and that, combined with underwhelming form figures of 553 in three previous appearances at the Cheltenham Festival, temper enthusiasm.
Quilixios – Cheltenham
Henry De Bromhead’s Quilixios was in the process of running a career best when falling at the final fence in this race 12 months ago and he is entitled to be thereabouts again, despite a year’s absence.
From a yard that has won three of the past nine runnings - Special Tiara (2017), Put The Kettle On (2021) and Captain Guinness (2024) - the nine-year-old has an excellent record fresh and he is sure to have been trained to the minute.