by Renee Israel
It will be difficult to find a horse racing expert who will not back top
Irish runner Sizing Europe in the coveted Queen Mother Champion Chase, which is
set for the second day of the Cheltenham Horse Racing Festival on March 14th at
3.20pm.
According to online bookmaker Sportingbet, Sizing Europe odds are 1/1
that he'll be able to defend his title, having won this race last year. However,
the Queen Mother Champion Chase is not the easiest race to defend, considering
that only 10 horses have managed to do so in the race's 50-year history.
The 2012 Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham is a two-mile, three horse
race. The other two Irish horses that are being talked about are Big Zeb and
Finian's Rainbow. Big Zeb won the Champion Chase in 2010 but was pushed to
second place by Sizing Europe in 2011.
Sizing Europe Looks to Be the Horse to Beat
Sizing Europe also secured an easy win over Big Zeb in Leopardstown in
February this year. From all indications, the jockey who rode Big Zeb in the
last two outings in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham will be switching steeds
and therefore Big Zeb will be put through his paces by a new rider.
The Queen Mother Champion Chase has a very interesting statistic - the winner
of the previous year's Arkle Chase usually starts as a favourite for the
Champion Chase, and Sizing Europe won the Arkle Chase in 2010 and the Champion
Chase in 2011.
While Captain Chris won the Arkle Chase in 2011, he is not in the Champion
Chase roster for 2012. However, the horse that came second in the 2011 Arkle
Chase is Finian's Rainbow. Finian's Rainbow does not have that good a record at
the Cheltenham Horse Racing Festival and maybe the Champion Chase is the time
for a correction.
The Queen Mother Champion Chase will be the feature race on March 14 on the
Ladies Day at the Cheltenham Horse Racing Festival. The race was first run in
1959 and was titled Queen Mother Champion Chase in 1980, on the occasion of the
eightieth birthday of the Queen Mother.
It was first sponsored only in 2008 and the current sponsor is the online
betting site Sportingbet.com. The Champion Chase is run over 2 miles by five
year olds and older.
The online betting site Sportingbet, who is sponsoring the race, has put up
odds for the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
The favourite Sizing Europe has odds of 1/1. Many other online betting sites
are offering the less than even money odds of 10/11 for Sizing Europe.
British punters who want to move with the flow and bet on Sizing Europe
should head to Sportingbet online before the odds are lowered there. The odds
for the top ten horses in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham are as
follows.
Queen Mother Champion Chase Odds at Sportingbet
Sizing Europe 1/1
Big Zeb 9/2
Finian's Rainbow 9/2
Somersby 9/1
Wishful Thinking 14/1
Kauto Stone 16/1
Realt Dubh 16/1
Blazing Tempo 25/1
Gauvain 28/1
I'm So Lucky 50/1
