Cheltenham Festival: Shishkin early favourite for Champion Chase 2022

*Odds quoted on the widget are Future Racing/Antepost prices which means that if your selection does not run in the race for whatever reason, you will lose your stake under traditional antepost rules

The National Hunt season is set to take over the reins from the Flat and all roads lead to Cheltenham for next year’s Festival at Prestbury Park.

The Queen Mother Champion Chase is the feature race on the second day of the mega meeting and the 2022 renewal has the potential to be a blockbuster. Put The Kettle On came out on top in March to add the Championship race to her Arkle Chase crown won the previous year.

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Put The Kettle On was due to make her seasonal reappearance in the PWC Champion Chase at Gowran Park on Saturday but was withdrawn by trainer Henry de Bromhead on account of the ground. She is now set to kick off her campaign with a run in next month’s Shloer Chase at Cheltenham.

If you fancy Put The Kettle On to retain her Champion Chase title in 2022, you can back her at 14/1 in Paddy’s antepost market.

Shishkin tops the lot at 7/4 in the early betting after emerging as one of the up-and-coming stars of the jumping game. Nicky Henderson’s charge is unbeaten since December 2019 including successes in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and Arkle Chase. The Lambourn trainer is hopeful Shishkin can follow Altior and Sprinter Sacre in becoming a dominant force in the 2m chasing division.

Willie Mullins’ duo Energumene and Chacun Pour Soi follow at 4/1 in our antepost betting. After a pair of impressive Grade 1 victories in Ireland, Energumene missed a tussle with Shishkin in this year’s Arkle Chase due to injury. Chacun Pour Soi, meanwhile, failed to get up the hill when odds-on favourite in the Champion Chase to finish 1½l behind Put The Kettle On in his only defeat of the season.

Greaneteen was fourth in this year’s renewal before rounding off his season with an impressive 3¾l defeat of Altior in the Celebration Chase at Sandown. The Paul Nicholls-trained bay gelding is priced at 12/1 in our early betting for next year’s Cheltenham showpiece.

Allaho destroyed the field in this year’s Ryanair Chase before being dropped in trip for the Punchestown Festival Champion Chase where he found Chacun Pour Soi too hot to handle. Will connections fancy a crack at the Cheltenham equivalent? He’s 14/1 in Paddy’s antepost market.

Envoi Allen fell in last season’s Marsh Novices’ Chase before being pulled up in the Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown. Cheveley Park Stud are hopeful the seven-year-old can get back to winning ways after successful surgery on a chipped joint and he’s priced at 16/1 in the early betting for the Champion Chase 2022.

Nube Negra was second in this year’s Queen Mother and Dan Skelton will be hoping the the former Spanish Flat runner can add a Grade 1 success to his CV.