Energumene’s connections will “not be hidden” from an all-star clash with Jonbon at Ascot later this month, with the BetMGM Clarence House Chase likely to be next for the two-time Champion Chase hero.
Taking advantage of Shishkin’s misfire going into his first Champion Chase in 2022, Willie Mullins’ sole winner of the second day of the Cheltenham Festival returned on a high to defend his crown a year later, with the defending champion chasing Captain Guinness 10 lengths second.
Injury ruled him out of becoming only the second horse to win three Champions’ Chases as he spent the entire 2023-24 race on the sidelines, but he made a thrilling return from 593 days off when he reappeared at his traditional starting point, Cork’s Hilly Way Chase. whom, where he seemed to have got the better of King George’s next hero, Banbridge, when he finally came down.
Energumene has previously followed a pre-New Year walk in Cork with Cheltenham music at Clarence House, and normal service is due to resume on January 18.
Owned by Brighton & Hove Albion supremo Tony Bloom, few can forget Energumene’s titanic showdown with the aforementioned Shishkin in a Grade One three years ago, when the duo were separated by just a length after battling for supremacy in the Ascot straight.
The 11-year-old now looks set to meet another standout performer from Nicky Henderson’s Seven Barrows line, whose race has been nominated as Johnbone’s next port of call to the Champion Chase, and the Energumene team are keen to take on the challenge;
Jonbon is favorite for the 2025 Champion Chase
“I spoke to Willie just before Christmas and he said he was fine and came out of Lille Way in great shape,” Bloom’s racing manager Sean Graham said.
“Bainbridge went and revealed that form a bit by winning the King George, but Willie also noted that Dinoblue (by 10 seconds) didn’t run very well after that; another says it didn’t.
“He’s in great form and we’re just hoping the field is soft at Ascot because the softer the better for him.
“We’re certainly not going to hide from the race and if the conditions are right and the ground is soft and not too fast, that’s the race we’re aiming for. I haven’t heard anything else since I spoke to Willie, so I think so it will be the same.”
The sinister Shishkin defeated Energuman in the 2022 Clarence House classic finish.
Although Clarence House could see two of the Champion Chase’s front-runners go toe-to-toe, there will be half an eye on March with Energumene arriving at the Cheltenham Festival clean.
At Prestbury Park he will have the chance to repeat the feats of Budsworth Boy, who is the only horse to win the Champion Chase three times, and appears 5-1 overall in stripes following his Cork return.
Only Johnbone and stablemate Gaelic Warrior are ahead of him in the two-mile championship stakes and the connections are hopeful of their preferred conditions underfoot ahead of his long-awaited hat-trick bid in the Cotswolds.
“Before he ran at Hilly Way he was 12-1 to win the Champion Chase and now he’s about 5-1,” Graham continued.
“He’ll be 11 in March and the last 11-year-old to win the Champion Chase was Moscow Flyer, and before that you have to go back to Skymas in the 1970s.
“They’re the last two 11-year-olds to win a race and that’s a big ask, but if the ground gets soft at Cheltenham on Wednesday, and I mean proper soft ground, then I won’t change him. something
“Budsworth Boy is the only horse to win three Champion Chases and when you look at all the great horses that have run that race over the years and all the superstars, if Energumene had gone and won the battle, he would have been the first for a long time beat three of them.
“It shows what a big ask it is, but we’re looking to get it there in one piece and still have a good crack at it.”
