Owned by Mrs. Patricia Pugh and trained by Nicky Henderson, in Upper Lambourn, Berkshire, Altior is the second-highest rated steeplechaser in training, according to Timeform. Indeed, the ten-year-old son of Montjeu has won 15 of his 16 starts over fences, including ten at the highest, Grade One level. He recorded back-to-back victories in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in 2018 and 2019 and, in 2020, was aiming to become the first horse since Badwsworth Boy, in 1985, to win the two-mile steeplechasing championship three times. However, having pulled up lame with a hitherto dormant, or inactive, splint – an injury to one of the small, slender splint bones between the knee and the fetlock – on the Sunday before the race, he was withdrawn.
In a season that Henderson later described as ‘a disaster’, Altior suffered his first and, so far, only defeat over fences, when stepped up to 2 miles and 5 furlongs for the first time, in the Christy 1965 Chase at Ascot, on his reappearance in November. Henderson later admitted, ‘He shouldn’t have run at Ascot in the first place’, but Altior could make no impression on his only serious rival, Cyrname, in the closing stages and eventually finished second, beaten 2¼ lengths. Nevertheless, Henderson recently reported Altior in ‘great form’ and announced that he will be reverting to a ‘tried and tested route’ for his 2020/21 campaign, starting with the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown Park, scheduled for Saturday, December 5, 2020. Altior is second favourite for the 2021 Queen Mother Champion Chase, behind only Chacun Pour Soi, and, if he makes it to the Festival this time ’round, he will be seeking his fifth victory, having previously won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2016 and the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2017.