Coral presents The Queen Mother Champion Chase infographic

The Queen Mother Champion Chase takes centre stage at the Cheltenham Festival and Coral have compiled an insightful infographic to give punters some background on the event, which first started in 1959, with the Queen Mother’s name being added to the event in 1980.

The reason for this, is because, unbeknownst to many, the Queen Mother devoted much of her time to National Hunt racing; a name that the event was called previously, though this accolade was also to celebrate her 80th birthday. Her horse, Game Spirit finished runner-up in 1976 no less.

Did you know, for example, that there were as many as six occasions when only five horses took part since it started and there has only been one horse which has won it on three occasions; Badsworth Boy, finishing first consecutively in 1983, 1984 and 1985.

It hasn’t been a race for grey horses either, with only two winning in the race’s entire history, could 2015 be the year when that number increases?

In 2000, Edredon Bleu, ridden by Tony McCoy achieved the fastest time of 3 minutes and 44.70 seconds, trained by Henrietta Knight, while Tom Draper has secured the most wins as trainer for this race, with six in his favour. No doubt Willie Mullins will have his eye on this record.