Cheltenham Festival tips: Antepost preview & recommended bets for Queen Mother Champion Chase

2022 Cheltenham Festival antepost tips

1pt e.w. Funambule Sivola in Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase at 50/1 (General 1/5 1,2,3)

Sky Bet odds | Paddy Power | Betfair Sportsbook

If you’re not going to tackle antepost Cheltenham Festival punting head-on - and with both feet - then you may as well not bother, and with that in mind I fancy an early dart at Shishkin and Energumene who completely dominate the betting for the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase.

It’s not that they're the wrong price – certainly not if the race were tomorrow anyway, an assertion backed up by the fact that most firms are already 4/5 Shishkin and 9/4 Energumene, which happens to mirror the prices of the one firm to have already gone non-runner no-bet on the race (bet365).

So with most of the layers in effect already skipping to the final declaration stage 10 weeks in advance, with at least a couple of really significant trials still to come, there’s clearly scope to beat the market by a fair margin if getting the right horses on side while antepost rules still apply.

On balance, I'm happy enough to oppose the principals on value grounds alone - we've seen enough late withdrawals in this division over the years - and the initial temptation is to get with Paul Nicholls. Nobody has won the race more times (Tom Dreaper and Nicky Henderson the other trainers with six Champion Chase victories to their name) and he looks like aiming at least a couple of horses towards the race again, despite publicly handing the Champion Chase on a plate to Shishkin in his post-race interview following the Desert Orchid on December 27.

The Nicholls-trained Greaneteen, beaten 10 lengths by Henderson’s superstar at Kempton which prompted the pseudo-admission of defeat, is the third-favourite at this point along with Energumene’s ailing stable companion Chacun Pour Soi, but neither is all that inspiring at current odds despite Greaneteen earlier in the campaign winning the Tingle Creek – traditionally one of the most informative British stepping-stones.

With Chacun Pour Soi and wide-margin Shloer Chase winner Nube Negra both flopping, the Sandown Grade One probably didn’t take all that much winning this year and on the day it looked like Greaneteen was a touch flattered by the five and a half-length margin over stablemate Hitman, who lost a lot of momentum with a scruffy jump at the second-last (nodded on landing) before boxing on bravely.

Hitman, just turned six, still looked a work in progress in the first-time tongue-tie there, as he had done when seemingly worried out of it by Eldorado Allen in the Haldon Gold Cup on his seasonal return, and at 25/1 there’s a case to be made for him bridging the gap to some extent. On the other hand, I’d seriously fear connections skipping Cheltenham altogether this time and having him cherry-ripe for Aintree, with a step back up to two and a half miles bound to happen at some stage.

Who are the best longshots with Champion Chase potential?

It’s one thing being willing to accept doubts around potential participation but you really need to feel like you’re being well compensated in terms of price when betting this far out, and there are two lurking at huge odds who could yet emerge as something close to ‘next best’ behind the blindingly obvious market leaders.

The first is Gary Moore’s Editeur Du Gite, who was given a speculative Champion Chase entry this week ahead of a first shot at open Graded company in Newbury’s Grade Two Betfair-backed contest formerly known as the Game Spirit on February 12.

The received wisdom is that in going there he’ll likely avoid Energumene and Shishkin – who, interestingly are priced in that order for Ascot’s Clarence House Chase later this month which perhaps tells its own tale – and Editeur Du Gite is already proven around Newbury having won at the track last March when his rate of progression really started to take off.

Based on last month’s four-length Cheltenham handicap success from a mark of 147 he’s still not reached the ceiling of his ability and if all went well in the Game Spirit then, being a razor-sharp jumper with a prominent run-style and the ability to handle all types of ground, he could be a legitimate each-way option for the day-two feature come Festival week.

The issue with him is that he’s still got a long way to go (in bare form terms) in such a short space of time, and at an even bigger price I prefer the idea of FUNAMBULE SIVOLA, who is another admittedly more likely to line up for the Grand Annual than a Grade One as things stand (also entered in Ryanair Chase), but makes a fair amount of appeal otherwise.

• Click here to back Funambule Sivola with Sky Bet

Having started the season with a BHA mark of 156 he’s now down to 152 which could look really attractive but I’m more than hopeful we’ll see this horse again before the Festival – he thrived on racing last term, appearing seven times including four after the turn of the year – and with a bit of luck he’ll blow his mark and leave trainer Venetia Williams with little or no option but to go for the big one.

Firstly, we know that having shown huge improvement from a lowly perch of 112 he certainly didn’t look out of place when second to Shishkin in Aintree’s Grade One Maghull Novices’ Chase last April. In fact, he probably gave 1/8-favourite backers the briefest of scares when still looking full of running landing after the final fence.

He was comfortably brushed aside on the run-in but that three and a quarter-length defeat is easily the closest anything has got to Shishkin since Abacadabras in the 2020 Sky Bet Supreme, and while the market leader may have been a bit flat after Cheltenham, it was still a promising effort from the runner-up.

Back in trip surely the way to go

This season has yet to go to plan as Williams has tried to stretch him out to two and a half miles but on each occasion he’s shaped like a top two-mile horse in the making. There are shades of Nube Negra about him in the way that he glides across the fences, not getting particularly high but reserving energy in the process, and like Dan Skelton’s horse who went close in the 2020 Queen Mother, he travels sweetly before producing a good turn of foot.

He was bossing inferior rivals on his way up the ladder last term and Charlie Deutsch generally sent him on from the front but the horse doesn’t have to lead and he should in theory relish a strongly-run race around the Old Course at Cheltenham.

The extended two and a half miles on a rain-hit New Course (soft) wasn’t his bag at all when asked to shoulder a big weight in handicap company on New Year’s Day, but he ran much better than the finishing position suggests, and it’s not hard to argue the same comment applies to his four and a half-length second behind First Flow in the Peterborough Chase in early-December (replay below).

Not without support at Huntingdon (11/2), he went toe-to-toe with Allmankind and Master Tommytucker at the head of affairs in a race that ultimately fell into First Flow’s lap. What was most striking was just how long the keen-going Funambule Sivola hung in there as he was still on the bridle turning for home as the other pace-setters faded badly.

First Flow – conceding the second 6lb to his credit – was the stronger stayer after the last but Williams’ horse would have had him cooked at two miles and it’s interesting to see First Flow as short as 5/1 for the Clarence House and Funambule Sivola 14/1.

I’d have them much closer together given the latter is already a winner around Ascot as well and if there’s a spoiler in the Shishkin versus Energumene party (other than one of them not showing, of course) then this lightly-raced seven-year-old looks precisely that.

A positive performance on January 22 would see Funambule Sivola’s Cheltenham odds cut (he's 50/1 generally and 33s NRNB for the more cautious reader) and handicaps may swiftly become a thing of the past.

At a similar sort of price and also entered at Ascot, the Nicholls-trained Rouge Vif is worth a brief mention too as he was punted like he’d turned over a new leaf on the Ditcheat gallops when resuming after summer wind surgery in the Shloer.

He didn’t run too badly to halfway but, after pulling for his head early on, predictably stopped to nothing to make it three (truncated) outings in a row he’s now been beaten 20 lengths or more.

That’s clearly not his true form as he showed sparks of genuine class for Harry Whittington and if one person can get him back then it’s going to be Nicholls, but this looks a very risky business as most of his peak efforts have come on flatter tracks - or left-handed - so enhancing his claims much at Ascot seems pretty unlikely.

Published at 1400 GMT on 05/01/21

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