As steeplechases go, the £175,000 Tingle Creek of 2025 looks spectacular. Three previous Grade 1 course and distance winners could run at Sandown Park on Saturday, 6 December with the winner guaranteed the status of pre-Christmas favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Five of the six remaining entries at penultimate declarations go with only Alan King veteran Edwardstone preferring an alternative engagement in Huntingdon’s Peterborough Chase the following day. JP McManus racing manager Frank Berry confirmed the return of Jonbon to the Esher venue seeking a historic hat-trick in this race, however, rather than swerving clashes with younger rivals that beat him on his last couple of outings.
Debate rages as to whether or not Nicky Henderson’s nine-year-old full brother to the once mighty Douvan is a Cheltenham horse or not. Jonbon, now rising 10, has a superb overall record at Sandown, however, bringing course and distance form figures of 111112 into the Tingle Creek of 2025. No steeplechaser has ever won three editions of this contest in a row from the Esher venue.
The middle leg of Flagship Uberalles treble in 2000 came at Cheltenham races when the original contest in Greater London ended up abandoned. Standing in Jonbon’s way, however, are a couple of seven-year-olds with fewer miles on the clock. Chief among those is Il Etait Temps, who bested him in the Celebration Chase here during springtime despite almost 12 months off the track.
Willie Mullins has landed the Sandown showpiece before with the great Un De Sceaux, another high-cruising French-bred chaser. In Il Etait Temps, he has a four-time Grade 1 winner who looked to have the world at his feet following victories in the Irish Arkle, Manifesto Novices’ Chase and at the Punchestown Festival in 2024.
Il Etait Temps Favourite for Tingle Creek 2025
Whatever kept Il Etait Temps off a racecourse for 359 days had no impact on his ability as he ran out a comfortable winner over Jonbon here in April. He warmed up for a tilt at a second successful raid on Esher this calendar year by defying a penalty and another break of 194 days when running away with the Clonmel Oil Chase in November.
Il Etait Temps gave weight and a beating to the Webster Cup winner Senecia, 2024 Irish Grand National hero Intense Raffles and Topham Chase scorer Gentleman De Mee in his prep race. Success in the Tingle Creek of 2025 will result in his Cheltenham odds for the Champion Chase shortening again.
Mullins has extra incentive to capture this race for just the second time. He bids for an unprecedented third British National Hunt Trainers Championship in a row, something no Irish handler has ever done. While Mullins trails pacesetting Dan Skelton by a long way at this relative early stage of the core jumps season, typical dominance of the Cheltenham Festival schedule can easily claw the deficit back.
That defeat of Jonbon by Il Etait Temps at the end of last season didn’t look like a fluke. He isn’t always the most fluent of jumpers, but this grey gelding by Jukebox Jury has a massive engine which allows him to take off at the business end of his races. Paul Townend’s task will be to get Il Etait Temps into the rhythm needed down the back straight with seven fences on that part of the course.
Meeting the Railway Fences right is where the Tingle Creek of 2025 will probably be won and lost. Those three obstacles just before turning for home and the Pond Fence come in quick succession.
L’Eau Du Sud Bids to Follow-up on Shloer Success
While Il Etait Temps kept off the pace until the Railway Fences were out of the way in the Celebration Chase, plenty was in the tank for climbing the Esher hill in the home straight. Similar comments apply to the ride that Harry Skelton gave L’Eau du Sud in the Shloer Chase on the opening Cheltenham race card of the November Meeting.
Although left clear at the final fence by a bad mistake from Matata, he surged some 15 lengths ahead of Jonbon on the uphill run-in. It was a clear career best from L’Eau du Sud, whose novice form lacks substance and then tailed off come the spring. Jonbon is only 3lb better off with him from last month, however, so Cheltenham betting sites have him clear second-favourite.
The Henry VIII Novices’ Chase success from this card 12 months ago isn’t enough to win the Tingle Creek of 2025. L’Eau du Sud is open to the most progress over fences after just seven steeplechase starts, one fewer than Il Etait Temps. Such a fearsome trio scared off the 2022 winner Edwardstone, now rising 12, who was no match for the seven-year-olds on his last couple of starts.
Despite Harry Fry often swerving Jonbon throughout the career of contemporary and Ascot specialist Boothill, he runs here. Evan Williams’ Libberty Hunter hasn’t completed on his last two starts, meanwhile, so must sharpen up his jumping just to get in the frame. Harry Cobden picks up a spare ride deputising for the injured stable jockey Adam Wedge.
Tingle Creek 2025 Shortlist & Verdict
Whether Henderson wants to admit it or not, Jonbon wants further than this now. His jumping isn’t h0lding up at speed either, so a longer trip would be better for him now. Il Etait Temps also has some frailties in that department, but looks a much bigger threat coming over from the Emerald Isle to Sandown again before 2025 is out.
At the prices, L’EAU DU SUD looks worth siding with if reproducing that Shloer success. Skelton has the bit between his teeth in the title race and must throw everything at stopping Mullins plundering valuable prizes like this one. The others, either through age or on ratings, don’t have enough to land a blow on the big guns on all known form.
