Nicky Henderson’s seven-time Grade 1 winner Jonbon, 2024 Arkle champ Gaelic Warrior, and fellow Willie Mullins runner El Fabiolo have dominated the 2025 Champion Chase talk in the early stages of the 2024/25 season.
Can Jonbon finally follow in the hoofprints of his brother Douvan and win at the Cheltenham Festival? Will Gaelic Warrior take this next step up the ladder in his considerable stride? Or will El Fabiolo consign his desperate 2024 effort to the history books? All are intriguing questions. However, there is another horse in the Champion Chase mix who may have stronger claims than the aforementioned trio, and he goes by the name of Energumene.
Too Good in 2022 and 2023
Going in the colours of Brighton and Hove Albion supremo Tony Bloom, Energumene has tasted defeat only twice in 12 outings over fences, with that winning spree including six Grade 1 triumphs. Making his first appearance at the Cheltenham Festival in the 2022 Queen Mother Champion Chase, he cruised home almost nine lengths clear of the field. However, with the hot favourite Shiskin pulling up and the well-fancied Chacun Pour Soi unseating his rider, some questioned the quality of that performance.
At the end of the 2023 edition of the Day 2 highlight, there was no doubting the quality of this son of Denham Red. Sent off at offs of 6/5, Energumene was simply in a different league to the cream of the two-mile Chase division – barely coming off the bridle on his way to an effortless 10-length success.
Now firmly established as the king of the two-mile hill, Energumene looked like a solid bet to become only the second three-time winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, only for a hind leg injury to intervene.
As a result of that ailment, Energumene missed the entire 2023/24 campaign and has not been sighted at the track since landing the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Chase in April 2023.
Champ to Return at Cork
Happily, Energumene is now ready to return to the track and is pencilled in to make his comeback in the Grade 2 Bar One Racing Hilly Way Chase at Cork on Sunday afternoon. It will require a fine training performance to have the horse ready to win following a yawning 593-day absence from the track. However, Energumene has rock-solid form in this contest: he claimed the 2021 edition by not far short of nine lengths and stormed 15 lengths clear of his rivals in 2022.
Should he land the hat-trick in 2024, he will have taken the first step towards emulating the feat of 1983, 1984, and 1985 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Badsworth Boy. He’ll be 11 years old by the time the Cheltenham Festival rolls around, which would make him the oldest winner since Moscow Flyer in 2005. However, he’s lightly raced for one his age and is reportedly displaying much of the old swagger in his homework. All eyes are on the 2:15 pm at Cork on Sunday, 8th December.
Fellow Comeback Stars for Company
Energumene may be the headline act, but he is far from the only intriguing contender in the 2024 Hilly Way Chase. Also making the trip from Mullins’ Closutton operation are a pair of Grade 1 stars with a combined absence of 665 days.
Successful three times in Grade 1 company over two miles to 2m1f, there was a time when the Simon Munir and Isaac Souede runner Blue Lord was considered a legitimate Champion Chase contender. However, the most recent of those wins came back in 2022, and he raced only once during the 2023/24 campaign. A year younger than Energumene, he will add significantly to the division if returning to his best.
Whilst Energumene has missed one Cheltenham Festival through injury, poor old Ferny Hollow has sat out the past four editions of the March bonanza. That run of bad luck must be particularly frustrating, given the talent this son of Westerner has displayed when he has made it to the track.
Winning each of his three starts in 2020, including the Champion Bumper, he was a perfect two from two in 2021, including the Grade 1 Racing Post Novice Chase. Then followed an absence of 791 days. Returning in February with an effortless Grade 3 success at Navan, this brilliant but fragile sort may be a force in 2024/25… if he can stay fit.
