Edwardstone has Cannon fired up now

TOM Cannon is confident that Edwardstone can play a major role in the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase if reproducing his resurgent Game Spirit heroics at the Cheltenham Festival, writes Adam Morgan.

Alan King’s star chaser bounced back to his very best to produce a fine front-running display at Newbury earlier this month, below, a victory that gave the Barbury Castle handler his second win in the Grade Two event alongside Sceau Royal.

It was Edwardstone’s first win since the 2022 Tingle Creek and having snapped a six-race losing run, the ten-year-old is now the general 8-1 third-favourite for the Champion Chase behind Willie Mullins’ El Fabiolo and regular adversary Jonbon.

Cannon said: “He must have put himself right in the mix.

Hopefully he will be a bit closer to Jonbon given a change of tactics and anything more than that is a bonus, I think.

“If he turns up in the same form as he did at Newbury, we know he acts round Cheltenham so we keep our fingers crossed to get there in A1 condition and anything after that is in the lap of the gods.”

Edwardstone gave Cannon one of the biggest days of his career when waltzing to Arkle glory at the Festival in 2022, but there was disappointment 12 months later when sent off 15-8 secondfavourite for the Champion Chase, tailing home in fifth and beaten 64 lengths by Energumene.

“He probably wasn’t going into it in as good a form as he is this year, last year,” said Cannon. “So if he can continue the form he is in now, hopefully he will be thereabouts. He’s been a different horse since he has come back in this year. The best horse will win at the end of the day.”