Sunday Times
17th January 2026
Unscripted theatre, that’s sport at its best. By the time Jonbon battled home in the Clarence House Chase we had already seen drama enough but Ascot’s play looked like ending as tragedy. Star Irish chaser Il Etait Temps lay apparently lifeless after falling at the second last.
It had all started with so much happy expectation. Harry Cobden cut a beaming figure as he was led in after a serene all-the-way win in the first race on now big Cheltenham hope Winston Junior. Jonbon was set to be Cobden’s first top ride in the famous McManus silks since this week’s announcement of his impending appointment for this, the biggest owner jump racing has ever seen. He was a young man with the world at his feet. The trouble with jump racing is that never stops you getting a kicking.
Which is exactly what Cobden had three races later when Neon Moon capsized at the 9th fence and then thumped him ungratefully as he got up. The turf may have been soft but the hooves were hard and if no bones were broken he was now a battered figure stood down by the doctors from his much awaited moment in the McManus silks.
But, as ever, one jockey’s problem is another’s opportunity. James Bowen is Nicky Henderson’s infinitely promising number two rider and, with number one Nico De Boinville handling the stable’s now Cheltenham Supreme Novices Hurdle favourite Old Park Star to devastating success at Haydock, Jonbon’s saddle now beckoned for Bowen. Albeit this, for him, came with its own special challenge .
For the only time Bowen had piloted Jonbon in a race had been something of a disaster in this same Clarence House re-scheduled to Cheltenham two years ago. Starting at odds of 4-1 on, he and Jonbon got their wires crossed at the fences, got beaten a neck and at the end of play yesterday James admitted that it was his lowest ever day on the racecourse.
So no pressure then as he and Jonbon came out to renew battle with Il Etait Temps, the grey Irish flyer who had thrashed him in the Tingle Creek last time at Sandown. There were only two others but nothing was impossible. Gidleigh Park had his greatest day this weekend last January and Thistle Ask had registered four straight wins and risen 40lbs in the ratings since joining Dan Skelton’s academy for a bargain price of just £11,000.
Thistle Ask’s style is to let rip from flag fall and while Jonbon and Gidleigh Park drilled down to the first alongside they soon settled for follow up roles and within four fences even that was clearly too much for Gidleigh Park who was soon in trouble and quit altogether after the 6th of the 13 fences.
By then little clouds of doubt were already gathering over Il Etait Temps. Paul Townend had taken him wide down the hill but was three lengths adrift and already urging as the remaining trio shouldered the hill. Here, at the 8th, Bowen asked and Jonbon declined, hitting the fence hard and suddenly we had to consider the still spring heeled leader. Thistle Ask may have cost half a million less than Jonbon at the Sales but he was the one with the advantage. Round the last turn he and Harry Skelton swung. Il Etait Temps had joined Jonbon in pursuit but at full stretch he slithered and turned over at the second last leaving the leader with just one pursuer. But it was Jonbon who had already won 18 of his 25 races and been second in all the others. Thistle Ask’s forelegs had lost their bite. The two horses were level at the last but you knew that Jonbon wasn’t going to be second. There were three hard won lengths in it at the line.
For Bowen, Henderson, the cheering Ascot crowds and for the McManus family with this their favourite horse, here was a special day of glory. But a glance down the course hit hard into the retina. Il Etait Temps, rated the best two mile chaser in the Islands, lay stricken, neck outstretched on the sodden Ascot turf. The best of times and the worst of times.
That image haunted all through the celebrations. Bowen had won the Welsh Grand National as a 16 year old but this was the greatest day of a career that is in fine pursuit of older brother Sean. Henderson has supped full of glory but was still misty eyed with a trainer’s delight. Yet how good was this if Il Etait Temps was just a piece of meat?
Then the moment. The undertaker’s screens were taken back and there was the grey back on his feet. It had been a play in many stages but last scene of all was happiness complete.