Boylesports.com Champion Chase at Punchestown Preview

We've got what looks to be a fascinating face-off shaping up in the Champion Chase on the opening day of the Punchestown Festival with Sizing Europe – a massive winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase at 10/1 giving a rematch to Big Zeb. There is a capable supporting cast set to contest this one as well and it could certainly go down as a classic.

Sizing Europe was one of the biggest scores of the festival for a number of punters as his form had been darkened just enough by a few near-misses over in 2010. He'd been laid off for a while and simply stormed to victory on the day, asserting himself extremely well in the process. A few furlongs from home you could see how much gas he had left in the tank and he put in a performance that could be the literal definition of game. The nine-year-old Irish bay is a much shorter price here but becomes very solid-looking once he's on top of a forecast selection with Big Zeb failing to hit the board. Between these two, who will be gunning for each other the whole way, one will either win and the other will finish fourth or something like that. Just looks to be one of those races.

Go back far enough on the form-card and you'll actually find Sizing Europe beating Big Zeb at Punchestown in novice hurdle company way back in 2007. Is that the reference race? Probably not, but you have to give the form edge to Sizing Europe at the moment as he looks to have turned a corner and could be set to put a string of deserved victories together at the highest level.

While I have more confidence in Sizing Europe, it must be admitted that Big Zeb at 5/2 is not a bad deal really. His 3/1 price at the off for the Queen Mother was the highest odds he'd run at since the Grade 1 Kerrygold Champion Chase at (gulp) Punchestown in 2009. He was second to Master Minded on the day for those keeping track – priced at 9/2.

You have to wonder a bit about Big Zeb's ability at Punchestown right now as he was beaten by Golden Silver, not by much mind you, back in late January over course and distance in the Tied Cottage Chase – a reverse from the previous year's edition of the race when Big Zeb got the better of Golden Silver. He'll probably try more of the same here and see if it works – tracking the leaders early before really asserting himself once one of the other chasing pack starts to make a move on the pace-setters. It really comes down to whether he can dig in and fight on or not – he hasn't been able to do that in his last two and that's really what's been separating Big Zeb from the competition in the races that he's run. You wouldn't say he's bitten off more than he can chew in this one but it just comes down to how game he is and how testing he finds the ground on the run-in. Because he will be there on the run-in.

Captain Cee Bee always deserves respect and always takes money from a betting public that counts him amongst a special group of contenders you've just got to put a bet on – similar to the likes of Denman, Forpadydeplasterer and Kinkeel. He's trading around 5/1 or even 9/2 with most major bookmakers and you might want to wait out on him as his price probably isn't settled yet. If you can get best price guaranteed on him, back him now but I would wait as I think he could crack 8s or 9s on the exchange. There's a chance that the top two run each other out and somebody runs on a bit late and just nips them. CCB generally sticks towards the back and puts in a good shift towards the finish so he actually might try running a bit closer to the front of the pace isn't particularly electrifying. Admittedly, he may not be able to match Sizing Europe or Big Zeb if either of them runs to the best of their ability.

Golden Silver is here for this one and he's a bit of a wiseguy option in this race. I don't think he'll be able to beat the top two without some type of error happening to one of them but he could certainly be a factor if the race shapes up exactly right for him. I think that 4/1 is certainly too short considering we've got Tataniano in the running here on 16s and I think he could be a bit bigger of a force – especially with the pace we can expect in this type of race. Tataniano will want to set things off pretty sharply and Golden Silver might just be left with too much to do at the end of the 2m considering who will be in the chasing pack. Willy Mullins will need an especially assertive performance from the French-bred if he's going to get the better of Big Zeb in this one.