2016 Queen Mother Champion Chase

[mayo]

Uxizandre was the year ahead Pricewise pick ...33s somewhere

 

[Old Vic]

10 year winners table

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Odds Table

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[gjt7756]

Hope we see an old pretender coming to the fore of this market tomorrow in sprinter sacre, would be great to see him up against Un De Sceaux come the festival with both at the top of there game, but clearly if the former named horse was to really return surely there would only be one winner and would be a hell of a lot shorter than 16/1 in the market, surely if the stable had confidence they would be lapping up these early prices, we all know they like a flutter in seven barrows, and we would have see some sort of market move already...

 

[MrMcGoldrick]

Ur right gjt, no 16's around now, with this and the defeat of Faugheen it looks like there are several cats amongst a large flock of pigeons, could be an interesting few weeks in the fez build up

 

[gjt7756]

That was actually amazing to see today, one of the first moments of the season which properly made my hairs stand on end and that tingling sensation in your arms, absolutely fantastic, just what i wanted to see and could only imagine the whole racing world wanted to see, hopefully he goes on from this, stays sound and sets up a mouth watering clash with Un De Sceaux at the festival...!! Come on now lads what are we all saying about the queen mother???

 

[Faugheen_Machine]

As impressive as SS was today, that was a pretty poor race. I remain to be convinced that he can regain his crown in March. If he is back to something like his best, it'll be some training performance!!

 

[gjt7756]

I wouldn't go as far to say today's race was poor, granted he was receiving 10lb from Mr Mole, but he's beat somersby, of level weights, into 2nd by 14 lengths, and i know were all probably thinking it's only somersby but lets not forget that for the last two years somersby has filled the same roll in the champion chase by coming 2nd and that can be not be done by luck, so is the form of today's race really that poor, by virtue of form lines it's actually not that bad, simply ned is no mug in the chasing ranks and he was at least 20 lengths back today, but i do agree he has some way to go to regain his crown but at the end of the day it wasn't a bad start

 

[Deleted member 4957]

Good to have SS back.
Being a 10 year old come March puts a big question mark over him being able to regain his 2m crown, but I guess having had all of 2014 off the track he has less miles on the clock than most 10 year olds that have taken their chance in the race.
The great Moscow Flyer being the last double digit winner of the race....

 

[mayo]

Division looks weak enough so would rule him out of regaining it.

 

[Old Vic]

I think it would be epic to see UDS take off in his usual style and give Sprinter have something to aim at...track records could be smashed on decent ground.

 

[mayo]

I think it would be epic to see UDS take off in his usual style and give Sprinter have something to aim at...track records could be smashed on decent ground.

with Simonsig settled in behind

 

[MrMcGoldrick]

with Simonsig settled in behind

And Vautour's nose stuck between UDS's butt cheeks

 

[Yeehaa]

And Vautour's nose stuck between UDS's butt cheeks

could be busy up front if Uxizandre switched to two miles

 

[MrMcGoldrick]

could be busy up front if Uxizandre switched to two miles

I've actually had a few quid ew on Uxizandre for this Yeehaa, I remember McCoy being interviewed on the way back to the winners enclosure after hosing up in the Ryanair, when asked about the horse's future he said "He'll be a great ride for somebody in the Champion Chase next year" so he must think he could hold his own over 2 miles. Just fyi I've doubled him up ew with Peace & co for the Champion hurdle. Interesting also that Vautour has been pushed out for the QM, still think there's a chance he turns up there though, I just can't see them wasting a horse like him on the Ryanair, if he fails to impress over further that is. The latest entry for Vautour is over 2m 5f, so his first try at 3m could be the KG, in my view this still wouldn't confirm that he would get the Gold cup trip, win or lose, but I suppose it would be the manner of a win that would be the important factor. What also throws a spanner in the works is how wound up Vautour would be at Christmas, he wasn't last year.

 

[Captain Christy]

I like the idea of Vautour in the Champion Chase. I think he could be the new Kauto and have the ability to win at anything between 2m and 3m when on form.

Seagal tipped Uxizandre in RP for champion chase after last years Ryanair.

 

[iainmcf]

Un De Sceaux is the no 1 horse from the Mullins yard for the QM chase and rightly so, no other horse has got past him yet, hes faster than Vautour at 2 miles and is now a backable price now that Sprinter has won again.In my opinion he'll run the opposition into the ground and then this hirse might start getting tge credit he deserves.

 

[mayo]

Henderson had an upbeat report on Josses Hill today - jumping straight now, UDS has done nothing wrong but just doesnt float my boat even at the current price.

Ruby thought SS got tired ?

Sprinter Sacre looked very good on Sunday and back to the Sprinter Sacre of old. He got tired going up the hill but you would expect that on his first run of the season.

He was getting 10lbs off Mr Mole but it was the manner of the win – rather than the form of it – that made you sit up and take notice.

He had all his old zip back – the ‘wow factor’ looked to be there again.

It’s hard to compare the bare form of that run with Simonsig’s comeback defeat to Bobs Worth (after a long absence).

But after that performance you’d be mad not to pick Sprinter Sacre if you’d the choice between them with next month’s Tingle Creek in mind .

 

[paz247]

SS looked mighty again on Sunday, but you just have to wonder what might happen again ( hopefully nothing ) because if he turns up fully wound up and ready for it it will be great watching him and UDS going at it in the QM

 

[Old Vic]

Lydia

For the third season running since he won the 2013 Queen Mother Champion Chase, the name Sprinter Sacre conjures a very different mental image.

This time two years ago, he was an imperious unbeaten bull of a chaser, winner of seven Grade Ones and proud owner of an elite 188 rating. Last year, he was the cringing cripple whose heart condition risked - at worst - ending his career and - seemingly, at best - permitting only an unconvincing shadow of a version to remain. The horse himself seemed tentative - at his fences, in a finish - as if he dared not express his athleticism of old in case it hurt.

Now we're talking joyously of revival. Nicky Henderson, his trainer, had spoken of Sprinter being "fit, fresh and well" and "a lot different to last year". His "grumpy and feisty" demeanour was back in evidence and his imposing physicality had returned, he said. On Sunday, we all saw what he meant.

The difference between the disappointments of last season and the promise of this can be distilled into two moments in Cheltenham's Shloer Chase: when Sprinter surged on under Nico de Boinville after soaring over the fourth last, instantly quelling his opposition, and how, after looking briefly vulnerable after the second last, he powered up the hill for a 14-length success.

I'd found Sprinter Sacre a hard horse to love when he was humbling all comers two and three seasons ago. I admired him enormously, yes, and marveled at his ability but I didn't root for him. Call me sentimentally exacting, but I like a bit of vulnerability in those whom I cheer for. He had none; then last season, that was all he had.

Watching in front of the big paddock screen at Cheltenham, I found myself letting out an involuntary roar four out before fretting audibly two out and then grinning idiotically from the last fence until about half an hour later. I love horseracing: its mass emotional manipulation in the open air.

Barry Geraghty must have had mixed feelings as he galvanised an instantly back-footed Mr Mole to go with Sprinter Sacre from the fourth last - the only rival to even attempt to do so. He conceded the game was up approaching the home turn, nursing his mount home thereafter in a race in which the relative weights greatly disadvantaged him.

Being brushed aside by the horse that he has described as "set apart" even from the other brilliant horses he has ridden must have been both desolating and uplifting. A brief flash of bleakness that Sprinter is no longer his ride since taking the JP McManus job; a surge of pleasure in watching his old ally get his mojo back.

My feelings distorted my interpretation of the race on the day: Sprinter Sacre was in reality even better than I'd hoped. Admittedly, Simply Ned was below his best and Mr Mole is yet to perform well at that track, but this was a substantial performance from the winner and in a very good time.

Somersby tends to improve for his first run of the season but the fact he was wearing cheekpieces - an aid usually kept for his Sunday best - and had seemed favoured by the race conditions, in receiving weight from all bar Sprinter Sacre, may suggest this was one of his fitter seasonal debuts.

Savello was given a picking-up-the-pieces ride on only his second start for Dan Skelton but he did win the 2014 Grand Annual off 147, finished third to Sizing Europe in a Punchestown Grade One on his next start and put up a not-dissimilar performance when winning there in June.

That means, at worst, Sprinter Sacre has posted a performance better than Un De Sceaux's Arkle and at least comparable to the two-mile champion Dodging Bullets' Clarence House win at Ascot in January - considered his career best - when he beat a muted Sprinter by three lengths.

At 13/8 best, Un De Sceaux is a truly dreadful price even in a shallow division. Given Uxizandre is out for the season, I can count four-and-a-half current players, completed by Vibrato Valtat and - the half - Simonsig. I'm possibly being unfair to Sizing Granite, the Aintree Grade One novice chase winner.

I therefore flirted with the idea of putting up Dodging Bullets each-way at 7/1 with Paddy Power. He has met with a small setback in training of late and may not recover in time for the Tingle Creek but - taking at face value that his tardiness is nothing more troubling - those odds are not unreasonable.

If you took 6/1 immediately after Sprinter Sacre won, well done. That price was roomy enough to accommodate the risks inherent in backing four months before D-day a horse who has bled and reportedly made a noise at Cheltenham last year - the latest in a list of breathing problems.

Vibrator, as trainer Paul Nicholls often appears to call Vibrato Valtat with his West Country burr, seems to have manned up another notch this season if his Haldon Gold Cup success is to be believed - a race in which 2014 Champion Chase winner Sire De Grugy weakened disappointingly and was declared to be "not as good as he once was" by rider, Jamie Moore.

Vibrator learned to see out his races last season; this time around, it seems he needs even less kidding and cajoling. But there will be sterner tests in which to judge that and he needs to improve another 10lb anyway.

Simonsig had his first run for 20 months when finishing second over hurdles at Aintree earlier this month. He'd need to improve on his peak Kempton form of December 2012 to get involved here and may not now be capable of that. That said, Henderson did describe him as "probably one of the most exciting chasers in the country" in his Racing Post stable tour a few weeks ago.

I must admit I've never thought there was much fight in Simonsig on the rare occasions his opponents were good enough to put him in one. Granted there were extenuating circumstances at Aintree - long absence, keenness, testing ground, possibly better at two miles - but I saw nothing to alter my view.

http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/...lop-road-to-cheltenham-festival-2016-part-one

Was that Uxizandre news confirmed ? I think we had conflicting interpretations when first reported.

I enjoy her reports.

 

[johnno]

Dodging Bullets is the forgotten horse again !

Was Sprinter Sacre's performance any better than the comeback run in January ?

He beat Somersby by 14 lengths on Sunday. In January be beat him by 12L. The Shloer was the Clarence House again but without Dodging Bullets.