SIRE De Grugy is full of confidence heading into a Queen Mother Champion Chase title defence at Cheltenham on Wednesday, say his Warrington-based owners.

The nine-year-old recovered from unseating jockey Jamie Moore on his return from a hip injury at Newbury on January 7 to win at Chepstow a fortnight ago.

Sean Preston, son of majority owner Steve, says running Sire De Grugy at Chepstow was a risk, but one definitely worth taking.

“It was a big risk because he’d only run two weeks previous and Cheltenham was only three and a half weeks away,” explained Preston, who grew up in Appleton.

“They could have run him and he got injured or fell. But luckily it was the right decision by the trainer and he ran really well.

“They know what they’re doing and genuinely believe the horses thrive on winning, jumping fences and beating the other runners.”

It was only Sire De Grugy’s second race since a hip injury in November.

“It was bizarre. He didn’t do any damage but was limping, a bit of a strain,” explained the former Bridgewater High School student.

“His fitness deteriorated and we had to get him back up – he won nine out of 10 races last year, so we were a bit spoilt with it really and that was a bit of a reality check.”

Preston is excited for a return to Cheltenham after Sire De Grugy’s debut win at the Festival last March, with the 2014 Jump Horse of the Year entering as second favourite behind Sprinter Sacre.

“It’s nerve-wracking and also exciting,” added the hairdresser. “Chepstow started to settle the nerves a little bit, but when it gets closer, you have 50 odd tweets from people asking about the horse, it brings it all back again.

“He only ran there for the first time last year. I’ve been four times, before that I would go as a fan and we just love going.

“A lot of people think you make absolutely millions out of it, but it costs a lot of money to keep going as well, so it’s far from it.”

The family hope to give something back to the sport, selling Sire De Grugy scarves – in Crystal Palace colours, the football team they support – to raise money for the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre.

“They take in ex-race horses or those that didn’t quite make the grade, retrain them and re-home them,” added Preston.

“We have all these scarves we use personally for us and everyone started asking for them – we ended up selling about 100 last year.

"We decided this year to use the charity’s online shop and they can distribute them and take the profits.”