'Helluva horse' Il Etait Temps completes Cheltenham-Punchestown double
Jockey Paul Townend and Il Etait Temps (left) won the William Hill Champion Chase at Punchestown. Pic: Healy Racing.
Il Etait Temps confirmed himself as best two-miler in training when landing the Grade One William Hill Champion Chase, the feature race on day one of the Punchestown festival, in decisive fashion.
Victorious in the Tingle Creek at Sandown in December, Il Etait Temps took a tired fall in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot next time out before bouncing back to win the Champion Chase at Cheltenham last month.
On the back of that success, he was sent off the 8-11 favourite to complete the Cheltenham-Punchestown double and duly obliged in front of a crowd of 18,923, beating Marine Nationale by five lengths with Energumene back in third on his final career start with Majborough a disappointing fourth.
“He’s a helluva horse,” Mullins said of the diminutive winner. “When you look at him, he doesn’t exactly scream big chaser to you, he’s not a big horse but he’s a strong horse.
“He made a huge mistake at the fence going down the hill and Paul [Townend] then just settled him in there. I think the mistake was the winning of the race for him, it took him out of the race and Paul just settled him in behind and it meant he had something in reserve [for the finish].
“When I saw him coming up beside Marine Nationale going to the third last, I said: ‘Wow, hopefully he just keeps jumping from here on home.’ And that’s what he did. Marine Nationale is a fair horse to beat, he has a huge engine.”
While keen to stress the better horse won on the day, owner-trainer Barry Connell felt Marine Nationale didn’t bring his A-game to Punchestown.
“I’d say he ran a little bit flat,” Connell said. “Speed is his forte and he looked like he ran a little bit flat today. All credit to the winner, he was a worthy winner on the day and they’ve pulled a long way clear of the rest of them. I think it sets us up for hopefully a nice campaign next year.”
As he revelled in the victory of Il Etait Temps, Mullins took a moment to pay tribute to the Energumene, the horse who ended his long wait for a first Champion Chase success.
He said: “He retires nice and sound and ran a cracker. He gave us all such a great day out in Fairyhouse the last day, he rolled back the years. It’s too sunny for him today but he still put up a great battle and it was nice to see him finish third.”
As for Connell, he may have been out of luck in the feature but he still bagged a Grade One as Eachtotheirown made every yard of the running to win the PRL Champion Novice Hurdle in the hands of Seán Flanagan.
The seven-year-old finished down the field in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham last time out but the switch to frontrunning tactics worked wonders on the 16-1 shot and he crossed the line four and a quarter lengths in front of Blake in a race where 2-1 favourite El Cairos could only finish fourth.
“We’re absolutely thrilled,” Connell said. “We thought he had a great chance in Cheltenham, we thought he would be placed but it didn’t happen for him as they went no gallop. He’s a typical Westerner, he’s quite exuberant. We said today that we’d pop him out and he settled away lovely. I thought he was worth taking his chance here and we were quietly confident that he’d be definitely there jumping the last.”
Looking to the future, Connell said: “The Arkle would be to the forefront of the mind at this stage, he’s an out-and-out two-miler. It’s magic to have a winner here, it really is.”
Eachtotheirown is part owned by Tim O’Driscoll who said: “I’m shaking here. I’m generally kind of calm but I was like a bit of a lunatic up there now and I made a holy show of myself but I just don’t care. It’s an amazing feeling, brilliant.”
The feature success of Il Etait Temps was the middle leg of a day one treble for Mullins, initiated by Kalix Delabarriere backing up a recent Fairyhouse success by winning the Killashee Hotel Handicap Hurdle at odds of 10-1 in the hands of Sean Cleary-Farrell.
Mullins said: “It was fantastic for Sean Cleary-Farrell, fantastic for the owners, to win a big handicap hurdle at Fairyhouse and come back and do that, in that sort of style. We might have to up him in class. He looks a real nice chaser for the future.”
The Closutton treble was completed in the finale when 7-2 joint-favourite Delamotte sent punters home happy by winning the bumper in the hands of Patrick Mullins.
