Date, time, latest odds and betting tips for the 2023 Betfair Chase at Haydock.
The Betfair Chase at Haydock has long been the first major stepping stone to Cheltenham Gold Cup glory, the Festival’s blue riband event.
In 2005 Betfair announced the Triple Crown, offering a £1 million bonus to any horse who won the Betfair Chase, King George and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in one season.
In the 2006/07 season, Kauto Star completed the treble to land the bonus for Paul Nicholls. Nicholls has confirmed that Bravemansgame, last year’s King George winner and Gold Cup 2nd, is set to run and victory on Saturday would leave the trainer dreaming of another Triple Crown success.
2023 Betfair Chase 2023 Odds
The latest odds for the 2023 Betfair Chase at Haydock at the time of writing.
- Protektorat 4/5
- Shishkin 3/1
- Bravemansgame 4/1
- Corach Rambler 8/1
- Royal Pagaille 10/1
Click to see the latest ante-post market for the 2023 Betfair Chase.
Cheltenham Gold Cup Odds
- Shishkin – 14/1
- Bravemansgame – 16/1
- Protektorat – 50/1
Click here for the 2024 Cheltenham Gold Cup market.
The latest odds at best prices through oddschecker for Shishkin, Bravemansgame and Protektorat in the 2024 Cheltenham Gold Cup.
2023 Betfair Chase Date and Start Time
The Betfair Chase is due to be run on Saturday 25th November at 3.00pm at Haydock Park and will be broadcast live on ITV.
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2023 Betfair Chase Runners
Six remain in the running for the 2023 Betfair Chase after the confirmation stage. Here is an in-depth look at the market’s three frontrunners.
Protektorat
2022 winner Protektorat is odds-on to win this race for a second year for the Skeltons. He made his seasonal debut here last year, running out an 11-length winner, with his trainer having him in conspicuously good shape for November.
Skelton has implied that this has been the target again, warning rivals that Protektorat will “be at his best” for the race. Protektorat’s record when fresh, after a 100+ day break, now reads 21231. The third was in the Gold Cup behind A Plus Tard, and one of the 2nd’s was in the Paddy Power off top weight. There is no doubt he’ll be in the thick of the action again; however, on closer examination, last year’s race is not all that it seems.
The 1/2 favourite, A Plus Tard, was pulled up before three out, with injury also ruling him out of the Savills Chase. He then missed the Irish Gold Cup and was not seen again until the Cheltenham Festival where he was also pulled up. It seems fair to disregard A Plus Tard from the runners, and what remains are horses who wouldn’t look out of place in the Coral Gold Cup.
Indeed, the remaining three runners, Eldorado Allen, Frodon and Bristol De Mai, all failed to win for the rest of the season and all finished their year in handicaps, being comprehensively beaten. Eldorado Allen finished a nine-length 5th behind Midnight River at Aintree, Frodon was beaten 34 lengths into 9th in the Bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown and Bristol De Mai was beaten 47 lengths returned to Haydock in the Grand National trial and subsequently retired.
This year, Protektorat has the Gold Cup 2nd and Aintree Bowl winner to contend with and it seems highly unlikely that either will be ending their year being comprehensively beaten in handicap chases. Skelton may have him fit as a fiddle, but he has to be taken on.
Shishkin
Shishkin had a remarkable campaign last year for Nicky Henderson, starting off in the Tingle Creek, then running in the Ascot Chase and Ryanair Chase before running down Aintree specialist, Ahoy Senor, in the Bowl.
The latter performance, in particular, marked him out as a proper stayer, with the son of Sholokhov looking outpaced on Aintree’s sharp Mildmay track before staying on strongly over the 3m 1f trip.
Haydock’s galloping track should suit him more, and, despite what his trainer says, any potential soft ground should be, at least, manageable having won his Supreme on soft and a maiden hurdle on heavy. Having raced over three miles only once, when accounting for Ahoy Senor, he is potentially the most unexposed in the field despite being a year senior of his two main rivals.
Nicky Henderson has claimed this is very much a stepping stone unto the King George, and will Bravemansgame fit from the Charlie Hall and Protektorat treating this as his Gold Cup, Shishkin will need to be at the top of his game if he is to win this.
Bravemansgame
Since 2017, only two horses that have finished 1st or 2nd in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, have won before Christmas the following season.
Bravemansgame bolstered this statistic with his defeat in the Charlie Hall behind Mouse Morris’s Gentlemansgame. One of those two horses, however, was A Plus Tard running out a 22 length winner of the Betfair Chase itself, after his 2nd behind Minella Indo in March.
However, he missed both Aintree and Punchestown giving him plenty of rest time, and being a seven-year-old, he was a year younger than Bravemansgame. All of this conspires to the following; the Cheltenham Gold Cup is an immensely hard race in which horses have to go beyond their constitution to win or go close to winning.
As such horses are rarely the same ever again. Coneygree won the race as a novice, and disregarding a three-runner listed race which he was 1/4f, he never won again.
Native River did win three small field Grade 2’s but never won a Grade 1 again, Minella Indo’s record is two wins from nine since Gold Cup glory with both wins coming in five-runner Grade 3’s, and A Plus Tard has bombed out in all three runs since.
Bravemansgame is a doubtful stayer, and to go that clip and then attempt to find more up the hill after being headed, is something beyond his constitution. What is more, he was beaten at Punchestown by a horse who ran, and got beat, in the Ultima, and, as said, he was beaten on seasonal debut by a horse rated 18lbs lower than him at the time.
It seems the best he can hope for is an early season haul with Saturday’s Betfair Chase and the King George both races that should suit and also those that will avoid the Irish challenge. Whereas Kempton’s tight track plays strength to his fast jumping and disguises his doubtful staying, I am not sure Haydock’s wide galloping track over 3m 1 1/2f will.
Nevertheless, his Cheltenham Gold Cup 2nd is the best form currently on record, and if he jumps as well as at Wetherby, barring the last fence, then he has a huge chance of collecting this before collecting the King George.
2023 Betfair Chase Tips
Although he may not be the fittest of the three, I think Shishkin can cement himself among the Gold Cup favourites with victory on Saturday. Although, he would not be sure to uphold the form over Bravemansgame come Kempton, he may be able to get the better of him here.
