Events / Editor / 20 October 2007 /

Despite only two years on the racing calendar, the Grade 1 Betfair Chase, run at Haydock in mid-November over three miles, has already established itself as the first significant examination of Gold Cup contenders, and one of the major betting races of the first half of the National Hunt season.

In the inaugural event in 2005, odds-on favourite Kicking King (the reigning champion) could only finish third behind Kingscliff, this surprise quickly catapulting the race into the headlines.

With the betting public's favourite chasers doing battle at this early stage of the season, betting interest is intense on both the day of the race and in the ante-post odds betting markets, where many bets are wagered ahead of the championship race in mid-March.

In 2006, subsequent Gold Cup hero Kauto Star started his unbeaten run when beating Beef Or Salmon - Paul Nicholls' great chaser then going on to land the £1 million bonus offered by the sponsors when he duly won the King George and Gold Cup, landing stacks of ante-post bets in the process.

Should Kauto Star again make his seasonal reappearance in the Betfair Chase, masses of bets will be riding on him (despite the likely odds-on price) with the horse firmly established as a favourite of the British betting public.

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