Champion Chase Runners: El Fabiolo and Jonbon set for epic Cheltenham Festival battle

El Fabiolo and Jonbon are the two star names in the latest entry stage for the 2024 Queen Mother Champion Chase, which takes place at the Cheltenham Festival on Wednesday 13th March. The pair fought out the Arkle last season and they are set for an epic clash on day two of the meeting, being among the 14 Champion Chase Runners that could line up.

Six wins from six starts over fences has launched El Fabiolo to the top of the two-mile chase division and with stablemate and reigning Champion Chase hero Energumene unable to take his chance in this year’s contest then the Willie Mullins-trained El Fabiolo will be the red-hot favourite to land this prize in the spring. A facile winner of the Dublin Chase at Leopardstown’s Dublin Racing Festival last weekend, El Fabiolo is the standout candidate, but in Jonbon there is a classy performer flying the UK flag.

However, Jonbon’s preparation for the event couldn’t have gone much worse as having been sent off a hot favourite for the rearranged Clarence House Chase at Cheltenham, Nicky Henderson’s charge put in a harrowing mistake in the middle of that contest and then was unable to outbattle Joe Tizzard’s Elixir De Nutz in the closing stages and suffered defeat. He had a tough race that day and the Tizzard charge is one of the other 12 entries for this Championship contest. He will be looking to frank that recent Cheltenham form, but it’s Jonbon that is the clear second favourite.

It’s a division that lacks significant strength in depth, so there’s a huge chasm between the top two in the betting and the rest of the field, but the likes of Edwardstone, Captain Guinness, Boothill and Gentleman De Mee could take their chance in what is a fascinating contest.

Queen Mother Champion Chase 2024 Entries