There’s something of a surreal feel to the ante-post market for the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March. Neither of the two market leaders having been seen this season, and there are significant fitness and health questions to answer for both the former champion Sprinter Sacre, and current title holder Sire de Grugy.
Gary Moore‘s Sire de Grugy took full advantage of the absence of Sprinter Sacre last season from the two-mile chase scene following the Tingle Creek Chase last December, a race in which the Nicky Henderson-trained star was a long odds-on favourite but pulled up halfway down the far side with what turned out to be an irregular heartbeat. Moore’s dashing chestnut went on to win that Grade 1 race as he pleased.
With Sprinter Sacre sidelined for the rest of the campaign Sire de Grugy well and truly stepped up to the plate winning all the feature races at the distance, including the Grade 1 Clarence House at Ascot in January, and a superb win in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March, where he proved too good for the consistent Somersby, beating Mick Channon’s grand campaigner by six lengths.
Moore’s stable star was expected to make his seasonal reappearance at Cheltenham’s November fixture, but a hip injury put paid to that. While he is expected to be back in action in the New Year, no definite timeline has been given by the Sussex-based handler. So, with Sire de Grugy on the easy list Sprinter Sacre became a clear favourite to regain his crown having reportedly been given a clean bill of health a she built up to a crack at the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown in the absence of last year’s winner.
But on November 27 Nicky Henderson reported that his brilliant chaser – considered by many to be amongst the best two mile performers of the modern era – still hasn’t quite been showing the signs that he is ready to run and will not go to Sandown. Henderson added that he is reluctant to run the eight-year-old at Kempton’s Christmas meeting in the Grade 2 Desert Orchid Chase, the contest in which it all went so wrong for the long odds-on chance last winter.
So, at this point in time, neither the current nor the former champion chaser has been seen this season, and neither has a definite date to return to action. Questions are beginning to be asked about just when, and if we will see the pair take each other on this campaign, and both have drifted in the ante-post market for the Champion Chase. Sprinter Sacre is now out to 4/1 (from 3/1) on the news he will not run in the Tingle Creek, while Sire de Grugy can be backed at as a big as 5/1 to retain his crown.
In view of the front two in the betting both being on the drift it stands to reason that other potential new champions are attracting market support. Balder Succes, Alan King‘s winner of last season’s Grade 1 Maghull Novices Chase at Aintree and a good runner-up to God’s Own on his seasonal return in the Grade 2 Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter, has been cut from 10/1 to 8/1. Last term’s Arkle Trophy runner-up Champagne Fever, is now a top priced 12/1 alongside Simonsig, another Henderson star who has spent a long time on the sidelines, but who is expected to make the Ryanair Chase his Cheltenham target as and when he returns to the fray.
All in all, the two-mile chase division has a somewhat stop-gap feel to it at present, with punters in the dark as to which, if any of the big names will turn up on the big day for the coveted Queen Mother Champion Chase on March 11.
