Queen Mother Champion Chase Tips: Can fabulous Fabiolo prevail?

Wednesday afternoon, 15:30, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Following in the hoofprints of some of the very best the sport has ever seen will gallop the 2024 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner.

Grade 1 contest (of course it is), and the small matter of £225,080 to the winner. Only eight runners are expected to face the starter, but they've won a host of races between them and grace the affair with their welcome presence. Destiny calls - but who will answer?

15.30 Cheltenham - El Fabiolo @ 8/15

Try as I might, I can't find a plausible reason to oppose the red-hot jolly. I've been attempting to get it beat for two years - with precisely zero success. El Fabiolo is a machine.

He rumbles along, unperturbed by fools like me heaping faint praise upon him, while thinking his comeuppance is surely at hand. Not yet, at any rate, and I can't think why that should change on Wednesday afternoon.

He races in the famous double green silks of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, and is trained at Closutton, County Carlow by the genius that is William Peter Mullins. Winner of last season's Arkle over course-and-distance, he's unbeaten since April 2022.

Last time he sauntered home in a Leopardstown Grade 1, and has enjoyed a nice little 38-day break since. It was a career-best, and at seven he's every right to still be improving.

Jockey Paul Townend gets on with him beautifully, and the only crumb of hope surely is his tendency to occasionally jump right, which on a left-hand course like this isn't helpful. No-one for so long has been good enough or close enough to make that count in a race, and I'm expecting more of the same on Wednesday afternoon.

For an each-way play at a price, here's where I'm heading;

15.30 Cheltenham - Captain Guinness each-way @ 11/1

The Henry de Bromhead/Rachael Blackmore entry Captain Guinness was in rude form until two trips to Leopardstown first over Xmas, and then in early February. He was terrible, and the latter effort was the smooth cakewalk for El Fabiolo.

I can't believe he gave his running on either occasion, and would rather judge him on an impressive Grade 2 Navan success in November in fairly deep ground, which he's fairly sure to encounter today.

Rachael and Henry need no introduction regarding having winners at this great meeting (see file marked 'Supreme Novices' Hurdle, Tuesday), and I'm hoping he's got some sort of each-way shout at a decent price - around 11/1 as I write.

He ran Jonbon pretty close at Sandown last April, and if he's recaptured some of that sparkle could just enjoy his afternoon in the Cotswolds. He was second in this last year, beaten 10l, and that provides further, modest encouragement.

Good luck if you're playing, and let's hope it's an absolute blinder.

Cheltenham tips from Betfred Insights.