Energumene Wins Queen Mother Champion Chase For Second Straight Year

Energumene retained his Queen Mother Champion Chase crowd with a dominant performance that blew Edwardstone away. Paul Townend was on board the brilliant two-miler and he jumped perfectly to keep himself in contention and then with two fences to go he pulled out a big lead to leave the rest of the racing world in no doubt. 

"He was perfect everywhere,” Townend said. “He jumped brilliantly. You don't win champion races in that manner normally. He's a pleasure to ride."

He truly is a special horse and the greatest two-miler around at the minute. It’s yet another winner for Willie Mullins and Townend who are the dominant duo at the Festival so far. It was an intriguing race for the majority as the rain came down and the turf kicked up. 

Energumene was on the shoulder of Edituer De Gite who ran a good race from the front. In truth, it was those two going at it for the majority as the hotly-backed second favourite Edwardstone never really got going under Tom Cannon. Alan King’s horse was having to work hard to cope with the ground and although it closed in on the top two at one point, he was never close enough to make an impression and fell away to finish fifth. 

Captain Guinness ran well to come second while Greaneteen in third, while Editeur Du Gite came home in fourth. But there’s only one story here - Energumene reigns supreme once again. 

"He has done me proud. He ran a magnificent race and totally deserved to win. We are so fortunate to have such an amazing horse. He didn’t run at his best last time out but has shown his class today," owner Tony Bloom said. 

"We have a huge game against Crystal Palace tonight so I will focus on that now ahead of Grimsby in the FA Cup this weekend."

Race results:

1st. Energumene (6/5)

2nd. Captain Guinness (12/1)

3rd. Greaneteen (25/1)

4th. Editeur Du Gite (13/2)

5th.  Edwardstone (15/8)

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