Strong favourite Flagship Uberalles underlined his status as the country's top two-miler by winning a tough battle in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

The Phillip Hobbs-trained horse held on to beat Native Upmanship and Cenkos into second and third.

As the ground softened overnight Flagship was backed throughout and started the race at 6/4 favourite after opening the day as long as 3/1.

He found the ground really hard, but from the last fence he finally found his feet Richard Johnson

Edredon Bleu, who won this race two years ago, was clearly unhappy with the softening ground from very early on.

Traditionally happy to bowl along in front Edredon lost the lead long before the leading pack made the sweeping turn for home.

First Latalomne and then Native Upmanship, Desert Mountain and Flagship Uberalles swept past him a long way from the finish.

Rank outsider Cenkos, who has been primed for the Grand Jump in Japan next month, loomed up on the outside.

Latalomne suffered a crashing fall, but Flagship still had a battle on his hands up the Cheltenham hill.

Cenkos even jumped into the lead of the final flight, but he eventually run out of legs and faded into third.

Richard Johnson wins the Queen Mother on Flagship

Native Upmanship came at Flagship, but jockey Richard Johnson kept up his work on the favourite and eventually won by a couple of lengths.

Johnson rode Flagship so hard that the stewards handed him a four day ban for excessive use of the whip after the race.

Tony McCoy battled back gamely on Edredon Bleu in the final half mile to finish the race a respectable fourth.

Winning jockey Richard Johnson said: "For the whole race I thought he was beat.

"He found the ground really hard, but from the last fence he finally found his feet.

"He doesn't really handle this tough ground, although everybody thinks he does."

Desert Mountain's trainer Paul Nicholls admitted: "We've run a great race but Flagship is the best two-miler there is."