Il Etait Temps overcomes absence to win Celebration Chase at Sandown
Off the track for almost a year, the seven-year-old breezed to victory under Danny Mullins.
The form was in the book, when he was last seen he beat Gaelic Warrior at the Punchestown Festival having also won at Aintree, but the fact he had missed the whole of the season saw him go off a 9-2 chance.
Ridden by Danny Mullins, he pinged every fence and appeared on the bridle at the Pond Fence.
Jonbon, who had shifted marginally right at some of his fences but in the main jumped well, had no excuses as Il Etait Temps breezed by on his way to a five-and-a-half-length win to hand Jonbon his first defeat away from the Cheltenham Festival. The winner's stablemate Energumene was third.
What a return to action for Il Etait Temps who cruised in to contention, passes Jonbon and puts in a superb jump at the last, to give @WillieMullinsNH victory in the Grade 1 @bet365 Celebration Chase 😲 pic.twitter.com/Y6MqNwd7KW
— Sandown Park (@Sandownpark) April 26, 2025
Willie Mullins said: "I didn't expect that and I was hoping both him and Energumene would finish, pick up some place money and both be sound. But to do what he did, I couldn't believe it there in the stands and that has to be one of the moments of the whole year I think, for him to come out and do what he did.
"He looks top class and that's his fifth Grade One I think. He's not a big, chasing type and to put him against Jonbon it looked like father and son, but he can jump and he's athletic and stays and he does everything."
On the near season-long absence, Mullins added: "He had a little knee problem and was supposed to be back at Christmas and then Easter and every time we got close it went wrong.
"We said we'd put him by for Punchestown but then we needed him for today and thank god we did, but he has been working very well at home."
Nicky Henderson said of Jonbon: "He's run well and he's jumped and travelled and done everything right.
"He's danced every dance this season and unfortunately Cheltenham didn't work. He had his hardest race there in finishing second, trying to get into the race and that flattened him enough.
"Aintree was great and we are all starting to think that extra half-mile might help him. He's a very good two-miler but we'll be having a chat about it."
Resplendent Grey was an appropriate winner of the bet365 Gold Cup for new champion jockey Sean Bowen and chief supporter Olly Murphy.
Murphy has provided Bowen with over 100 winners as the Welshman secured a first title, and it was apt the two took out the last major handicap of the season together.
Bowen has made a name for himself for winning from unpromising positions and this was another one.
While Resplendent Grey travelled better than he had done all season in first-time cheekpieces, he was still flat out as Rachael Blackmore cruised to the front on Lombron.
However, with Bowen, who heads off for his stag party in Tenerife on Sunday, still in striking distance after jumping the last, there appeared to be an inevitability about the result and the 9-2 chance won by a length.
Given Willie Mullins was second, third, fourth and fifth with Lombron, High Class Hero, Spanish Harlem and Grangeclare West, he was confirmed as champion trainer for a second successive year.
A fitting winner, as the champion jockey @Sean_Bowen_ shows his class, guiding the game Resplendent Grey to a sweet success in the @bet365 Gold Cup Handicap Chase, for the @O_J_murphy91 yard 👏 pic.twitter.com/qulV6yza4K
— Sandown Park (@Sandownpark) April 26, 2025
Murphy said: "That was brilliant. I told him I wasn't going on his stag do yesterday but I might go now!
"What can I say to top today off, for Sean more importantly, today is his day. I've been a small cog in his wheel, I'm very proud of him and he's been a massive part of Warren Chase.
"I'm an emotional man when I'm happy, I always have been. There's a big team behind me and a big team behind Sean. Andrew Thornton (Gold Cup-winning jockey) does an awful lot with him, I'm just a small part but he's champion jockey and just won a big race, so it's brilliant.
"You have to pinch yourself sometimes, I'm very hard on myself. I text Sean this morning to say 'I'm sorry I haven't given him a Grade One winner this year' but that was great."
Bowen told ITV Racing: "That's amazing, it's been the best two weeks of my life and I hope it carries on forever!
"To have my family here is great but I've got to give a big mention to Olly Murphy, how someone has kept his horses in that good a form all season I'll never know.
"He's got a 25% strike-rate which is unheard of really and 56% of the horses he has run have won which is also unheard of, so he's doing something right."
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