Aidan Coleman riding Put The Kettle On (orange) clears on the way to winning The Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/PA
The Cheltenham hill is where National Hunt’s champions are judged, and the climb to the line found Chacun Pour Soi wanting in the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday. Instead it was a “mad” mare called Put The Kettle On who rose to the challenge, as she has every time she has raced here, adding the two-mile all-aged championship to her win in the Arkle Trophy for novices 12 months ago.
This was a fourth visit to the Old course at Cheltenham for Put The Kettle On, and a fourth win over track and trip. Henry de Bromhead’s mare led for much of the way but was headed by Chacun Pour Soi, the odds‑on favourite, on the run to the final fence, only to power up the hill as Willie Mullins’s runner visibly faltered.
A foot abscess forced Chacun Pour Soi to miss the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase (3.05) a year ago but the brilliant chaser can make amends at Cheltenham today.Today’s racecardsChacun Pour Soi has