With the Gold Cup stealing much of the limelight for this year’s Cheltenham Festival there has not been much focus on the Champion Chase. I usually enjoy this race more than any other with the speediest and best chasers going at it round Prestbury Park.

Many people will be thinking that Paul Nicholls has this race in the bag as he saddles both Twist Magic and Master Minded.

Master Minded

Master Minded is the current Champion Chase favourite at 5/2 with Paddy Power but has had just three runs in Britain. He unseated on his debut at Exeter but beat Hasty Prince in a handicap by three and a half lengths giving the runner up 6lbs. Nothing to suggest a Champion Chase winner so far.

In the Grade 2 Game Spirit Chase at Newbury he beat Voy Por Ustedes by 5 lengths in receipt of 6lbs. It should be noted in this race Master Minded made the running after the horses stood still for a while waiting for something to take up the lead. This gave the horse the run of the race and the bare form doesn’t tell the whole story.

To be favourite for the Champion Chase after these three runs is absurd. The horse has never run at Cheltenham and the form of his only run in Graded company is highly suspect.

Twist Magic

The second favourite is another Paul Nicholls trained horse, Twist Magic who is best priced at 3/1. He is a speedy horse who beat Voy Por Ustedes by 3 lengths in the Tingle Creek at Sandown. This race wasn’t run at a gruelling pace and this seemed to suit Twist Magic. His most recent run was a poor one being beat by 12 lengths by Tamarinble. Tamarinbleu made it a strong test which exposed Twist Magic’s apparent lack of stamina and he seems a bit of a bridle horse to me and I wouldn’t fancy him in a strongly run Champion Chase. Don’t forget he also fell at the Festival last season.

Voy Por Ustedes

This leaves Voy Por Ustedes of those at the head of the market. One win and three seconds shows he is consistent if nothing else this season. He has been beaten by both Twist Magic and Master Minded this season but in a truely run race round Cheltenham I am very confident he will come out on top. In three runs at Cheltenham, he has won twice and gone down by a neck giving lumps of weight to the winner. He has won on both trips to the Festival. In nineteen runs in this country he has only ever been unplaced once when completing and it is worth noting both his Festival wins have come when he has been underestimated. He didn’t go off favourite in either race.

It seems the bookies have underestimated Voy Por Ustedes one more time and at 7/2 he is a fantastic bet and a solid choice. Probably the biggest place banker there has ever been.

For more information about the Champion Chase click here - Champion Chase Form

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 4:31 pm and is filed under Cheltenham Festival. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.