Put The Kettle On stays perfect at Cheltenham with Queen Mother Champion Chase score

The 7-year-old mare Put The Kettle On is based in County Waterford in Ireland with trainer Henry De Bromhead. Cheltenham Racecourse in the west of England is really her home.

Wednesday, Put The Kettle On won the richest race of her career in the Grade 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase, prevailing in the two-mile race by a half-length over 10-1 Nube Negra. Chacon Pour Soi, the 2-5 favorite, stalked pacesetter Put The Kettle On, but could not sustain the threat and finished third by 1 1/2 lengths.

Put the Kettle On ($16.80) was challenged frequently through the $417,240 Queen Mother Champion Chase and is the first mare to win the Champion Chase. The race was first run in 1959.

Owned by the One For Luck racing syndicate, Put The Kettle On, who was ridden by Aidan Coleman, has won 9 of 16 starts in her career and is unbeaten in four career starts at Cheltenham – Grade 2 races in November 2019 and 2020 and the Grade 1 Arkle Novices’ Chase at the 2020 Cheltenham festival.

De Bromhead, 48, has won the Queen Mother Champion Chase three times and had a spectacular first half of the Cheltenham festival this week. On Tuesday, De Bromhead won the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle with the mare Honeysuckle. Aside from Put The Kettle On, De Bromhead won Wednesday’s Grade 1 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle with the highly-promising Bob Olinger, the 6-5 favorite in American pools.

Ireland-based trainers won five of the seven races on Wednesday at Cheltenham. It was St. Patrick’s Day, after all.

Willie Mullins of Ireland won two Grade 1 races – the $182,681 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase with Monkfish, who paid $2.20 in American pools; and the $78,266 Champion Bumper, a two-mile flat race, with Sir Gerhard ($6.80).

Ridden by Rachael Blackmore, Sir Gerhard held off a late run from stablemate Kilcruit, the 3-5 favorite.

Blackmore rode Bob Olinger in the day’s first race. In between that win and the victory by Sir Gerhard, Blackmore was unseated from Eklat De Rire in the Novices’ Chase, finished seventh on Notebook in the Queen Mother, was unseated from Balko Des Flos in the Cross-County Chase, and was aboard Embittered who fell at the ninth of 13 fences in the Grand Annual Challenge Cup Steeplechase. Embittered was quickly on his feet.

Tiger Roll, winner of the famous English Grand National at Aintree in 2018 and 2019, won for the fifth time in his career at the Cheltenham festival in the Cross-Country Chase at 3 3/4 miles over fences, hurdles, hedges, banks, and timber on a course that undulates largely through the track’s infield.

Tiger Roll, 11, was previously with trainer Gordon Elliott and has been trained by Denise Foster in recent weeks. This was the gelding’s third win in the Cross-Country Chase, but first victory in five starts since the 2019 English Grand National.

Tiger Roll will not start in the English Grand National on April 10 after owner Michael O’Leary said he was unhappy with the weight assignment. The Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse on April 5 is a possibile next start for the popular gelding.