Racing: Twelve contest queen Mother Champion Chase

Edredon Bleu will face 11 rivals when he attempts to follow up his 2000 success in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival tomorrow.

A big threat to Henrietta Knight’s star will be Flagship Uberalles, who defeated Edredon Bleu by four lengths when winning his third Tingle Creek Trophy at Sandown Park in December.

Bookmakers reported good money for Flagship Uberalles on Monday and he now shares favouritism with Edredon Bleu at 9-4.

Nicky Henderson has declared Tiutchev for the £220,000 contest.

The nine-year-old was forced to miss the Ritz Club Chase at Ascot after falling ill with colic and it was initially thought he would definitely be ruled out of the Festival event.

He had only just returned to action with an impressive victory at Sandown having been off the track since last May due to two bad bouts of colic in the summer.

But he has continued to please Henderson in his recovery and went well in a piece of work on Saturday morning at Seven Barrows.

Paul Nicholls has a strong hand with Cenkos, Desert Mountain and Fadalko in the line-up.

Brian Ellison’s Latalomne and the Tim Easterby-trained Turgeonev are the two northern challengers.

Conditional jockey Vinnie Keane takes the ride on Latalomne while Russ Garritty gets the leg up on Turgeonev.

Native Upmanship and Knife Edge are the two Irish runners and have both pleased connections in their build-up to the big race.

With champion jockey Tony McCoy on Edredon Bleu, Martin Pipe has snapped up the services Tony Dobbin for Wahiba Sands.

The Venetia Williams-trained Nordance Prince has his first race for 704 days in the two-mile championship but was going well when falling four out in this race two years ago.