Altior surges clear in 2018 Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase

Jumps great Altior triumphs at the Cheltenham Festival for the third successive year as the previous Supreme Novices' winner and Arkle hero lands the 2018 Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase for trainer Nicky Henderson, jockey Nico de Boinville and owner Patricia Pugh.

The short-priced looked in trouble in what proved a thrilling Champion Chase, but Altior showed his customary late turbo and finishing kick to surge clear by a commanding seven lengths to prevail in the grandest prize in steeplechasing over the specialist two-mile distance.

"He's so good. He's just got gears," sad Nicky Henderson, who has another potential jumps great on his hands after the recent retirement of his dual-Champion Chase winner and brilliant nine-time Grade 1 winner Sprinter Sacre.

“It’s strange that Altior has come around so soon after Sprinter Sacre," said Henderson. "Altior is very, very good and I always said he had very big shoes to fill, but each time he wins he gets closer to doing that.

“We will never forget Sprinter, who tugged at heartstrings in a way this horse might never do, but if he wins the Champion Chase again he might. Sprinter was such a show-off and a swank, and he won this race by a distance, although I’m not sure he beat horses as good as the runners today.”

2018 CHAMPION CHASE FULL FINISHING ORDER:

1 Altior (EvensF)
2 Min (5/2)
3 God's Own (40/1)
4 Politologue (12/1)
5 Ordinary World (40/1)
F Douvan (9/2)
F Charbel (28/1)
PU Special Tiara (25/1)
PU Ar Mad (50/1)

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