This Saturday, the 2024/25 National Hunt campaign goes out with a bang with the traditional Finale Day fixture at Sandown. The bet365 Gold Cup Handicap chase is the big betting heat on the day but it is far from the classiest event on the cracking seven-race card. The bet365 Oaksey Chase and bet365 Select Hurdle are each afforded Grade 2 status, whilst the headline Grade 1 contest arrives in the shape of the bet365 Celebration Chase.
Born as a replacement event for the Queen Mother Champion Chase following the foot and mouth-enforced abandonment of the Cheltenham Festival in 2001, this 1m7½f affair attracts a similar calibre of performer. Edredon Bleu, Sire Du Grugy, Special Tiara, Sprinter Sacre, and Altior landed both this event and the Day 2 Cheltenham highlight during their illustrious careers. However, this year, the market is headed by a runner who has never enjoyed the rub of the green at Prestbury Park in March.
Jonbon Bids to Join Altior in the History Books
Three Cheltenham Festival appearances have yielded a trio of runners-up finishes for Jonbon. However, the JP McManus-owned superstar has been nothing short of magnificent elsewhere. Included in his collection of ten Grade 1 triumphs are wins in the past two editions of the Celebration Chase, taking his overall record at Sandown to five wins from as many outings.
Jonbon’s Sandown Runs
| Date | Race | Jockey | Position | SP |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7th Dec 2024 | Tingle Creek Chase | Nico de Boinville | First | 8/13 |
| 27th Apr 2024 | Celebration Chase | Nico de Boinville | First | 15/8 |
| 9th Dec 2023 | Tingle Creek Chase | Nico de Boinville | First | 3/10 |
| 29th Apr 2023 | Celebration Chase | Aidan Coleman | First | 8/13 |
| 3rd Dec 2022 | Henry VIII Novices’ Chase | Aidan Coleman | First | 2/11 |
Almost four lengths too good for Captain Guinness in 2023 and four lengths clear of El Fabiolo in 2024, Jonbon is the red-hot favourite to make it a hat-trick of victories in 2025. Should he come home in front, he will join the mighty Altior as the only other three-time winner in the history of the event. Arriving on the back of a comfortable victory in the Melling Chase at the Aintree Grand National, he may take some stopping. However, if Jonbon is to make it safely to the winners’ enclosure, he must do so with the assistance of a new man in the saddle.
Walsh Steps in for Injured Nico
As the number one jockey at the Nicky Henderson yard, Nico de Boinville has partnered Jonbon to nine of his 18 career victories, including six of those ten Grade 1 wins. Unfortunately for Nico, a fall aboard As The Fella Says on Easter Monday left him with broken ribs and a neck injury. Happily, initial reports suggest the likeable rider is on the mend, but he will remain on the sidelines for this event.
Update on @NdeBoinville and jockey arrangements.#Ad https://t.co/XJF17vkGGi
— Nicky Henderson (@sevenbarrows) April 23, 2025
In de Boinville’s absence, JP McManus’s retained rider Mark Walsh has been called upon to take up the reins. Walsh has never ridden Jonbon, at least not in public, but is a safe pair of hands in top-level events – as he so brilliantly demonstrated aboard Inothewayurthinkin in the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup. He is yet to claim the Celebration Chase but boasts 40 Grade 1 triumphs and 13 wins at the Cheltenham Festival. If Jonbon arrives in top form, Walsh can be trusted to do the steering.
Mullins Duo Head the Opposition
Odds on across the board and six pounds and more ahead of the field on official ratings, Jonbon is the horse they all have to beat. However, as Jonbon himself illustrated with a juddering error in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, there is no such thing as a certainty in horse racing.
Should any chinks emerge in the favourite’s armour, a certain Irishman with his eye on the British National Hunt Trainers’ Championship appears best placed to take advantage. Well represented across the Finale Day card, Willie Mullins sends the following duo in pursuit of Celebration Chase gold.
Energumene
This 11-year-old can’t quite match Jonbon’s tally of top-level wins but does arrive as a six-time Grade 1 winner. He has also done something Jonbon has never done – win at the Cheltenham Festival. Brilliant in the 2022 and 2023 editions of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, he needs to bounce back from a pulled-up effort in the 2025 edition but rates a major threat to all if in peak form.
Ile Etait Temps
If Jonbon holds off the elder statesman in the line-up, he still has the younger legs of Il Etait Temps to worry about. Like Jonbon, this seven-year-old has failed to hit the mark at the Cheltenham Festival but has racked up four Grade 1 wins elsewhere. Off the track since mastering Gaelic Warrior in the Barberstown Castle Novices Chase in May 2024, he has a long absence to overcome, but Mullins can be trusted to have him ready.
Will Jonbon etch his name into the history books? Can Mullins prevent him and take another step towards the trainer’s title? Or will Edwardstone, Master Chewy, Unexpected Party or Harper’s Brook cause a shock?
