Cheltenham Festival: Energumene romps home to defend Champion Chase and eye up hat-trick

Billed as a potential triangular epic, Energumene ultimately turned Wednesday’s Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase into a solo show by easily defending his two-mile crown.

Willie Mullins’s 6-5 favourite became the 13th dual winner of the Cheltenham championship and could be back in 2024 to try and emulate Badsworth Boy’s unique hat-trick in the race.

Although one of his principal rivals, Editeur Du Gite, tried to keep tabs with Energumene for much of Wednesday’s feature, Edwardstone proved a bitter flop on rain-softened ground and never landed a blow.

[ Cheltenham Festival: Impaire Et Passe keeps up Willie Mullins’s Ballymore dominance ]

Instead, it was Henry de Bromhead’s 25-1 outsider Captain Guinness who chased home the winner, although jockey Paul Townend barely had to move a muscle to secure a 10-length success.

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“That was easy to be honest. I got in a lovely rhythm on him. After the first two fences he was taking them on, he was quick at them and it was simple,” Townend said.

“He had a little reach at the fence three out; those championship two-milers are supposed to be running like that, though. It was a dream ride and I was able to take it all in coming up the straight which doesn’t usually happen.”

Next year Energumene’s biggest threat might come from his own stable companion El Fabiolo who won Tuesday’s Arkle and is already favourite to pick up the title.

Inevitably asked to compare the two, Townend replied: “I’m not going to. I’m just going to enjoy the Champion Chase at this moment!”

Perhaps such quick comparisons reflect how Energumene hasn’t fully captured the public imagination yet in the fashion of other dual champions such as Moscow Flyer, Sprinter Sacre or Master Minded.

None of them, however, managed to take the third leap and pull off what Badsworth Boy did between 1983 and 1985.

If he does that then the horse whose name can be translated loosely from the French as freakish energy might get his due as an outstanding two-miler.

“It looks like he has improved from last year. What can I say, hopefully he will hold that form until next year. I’ll be praying for this sort of weather this time next year. The whole game plan will be to work back from this next year,” Mullins confirmed.

“I was way more confident coming into this year’s race as we hadn’t got Shishkin to take on and we thought, if there was any improvement from the Clarence House, that hopefully with a clear round he would win,” added the trainer.

There was a sting in the tail for Townend when he got a five-day suspension for careless riding after allowing Energumene drift across the runner-up on the turn-in which caused Editeur Du Gite to stumble.