REIGNING champion Moscow Flyer heads the 29 entries, including a record 11 from Ireland, for the 2006 Queen Mother Champion Chase.

The two-mile championship event carries £290,000 in prize money, up from £250,000 last year, and is run at Cheltenham on Wednesday, March 15.

Jessica Harrington's charge will bid to become only the second horse - following Badsworth Boy (1983-1985) to capture the famous race three times.

But the 12-year-old, who has been beaten on his three most recent starts, faces stiff opposition from a number of younger pretenders to his crown including the Paul Nicholls-trained Kauto Star, who was impressive when beating Ashley Brook and One Way to win the William Hill Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown last month.

Nicholls has also entered the 2002 Smurfit Champion Hurdle winner Hors La Loi III, also a Gold Cup entry,

Armaturk and Andreas, while Martin Pipe has three representatives - last season's Irish independent Arkle Chase winner Contraband, Locksmith and the novice Celtic Son.

Nigel Twiston-Davies's exciting Fundamentalist, Noel Chance's River City and the Mark Pitman-trained Dempsey are other interesting contenders.

There promises to be a truly sensational Jump Racing card at Cheltenham on Saturday, January 28.

Seven top quality races feature the £80,000 Letheby & Christopher Chase and the £110,000 Victor Chandler Chase transferred from Ascot - Europe's most valuable two-mile Handicap Chase.

The Ladbroke Trophy and Byrne Bros Cleeve Hurdle are equally prestigious and, within three hours, the challenges of finding Festival winners has either become encouragingly more straightforward or worryingly more complex.

Gates open at 10.30am with the first race due off at 1pm and the last at 4.15.