Sunday Times
7th December 2025
Sandown had crowds cheers and the sort of comprehensive Tingle Creek victory for Il Etait Temps that even such previous heroes as Desert Orchid, Kauto Star and Sprinter Sacre would be proud of.
The stage was set, albeit a soggy one. ONLY five runners but Jonbon and L’Eau du Sud both serious challengers to the odds on Irish grey. Jonbon, five times unbeaten at Sandown until trounced by Il Etait Temps here in April sported first time cheekpieces and his trainer’s belief that he could be back to the peak that has seen him take the last two Tingle Creeks, and that the April defeat came at the end of long season. L’Eau du Sud, fresh so it seemed from a brilliant win over Jonbon three weeks ago at Cheltenham and a challenger from the Skelton stable on a victory wave.
Jonbon remains the most elegant chaser in training and the sight of him in front over the first put heart into the believers. He will be ten in the New Year and won the first of his 19 victories in an Irish point to point five years ago. But he still could be a player. He came winging up to the open ditch in front of us with L’Eau du Sud and Il Etait Temps either side French to his sandwich. With the stride too long, he shortened quick footed to reassure Nico de Boinville up top.
Down the hill and across the first three railway fences he pressed on jumping boldly. With Aintree now emasculated, the seven fences along the Sandown back straight remains the most exhilarating jumping set piece in the game. This is the seventh time Jonbon has crossed it and if the contenders were to take him they would have to work.
Il Etait Temps nodded a bit at the last of the final three, but the trio still came in the same galloping sandwich towards the Pond fence, three from home with everything to play for. On the outside Harry Skelton was working with plenty of horse beneath him and Paul Townend was still poised behind Etait Temps’s black hooded head. Jonbon flew this just ahead and for a moment you could think a third Tingle Creek was possible. Then it wasn’t.
On landing Il Etait Temps powered up the inside with an ease little short of contempt. At the second last Jonbon matched him with a desperate leap only for the favourite to storm away like a little black hooded dynamo. On he came, in, up and over the last in front of us to draw nine long lengths away from a weary Jonbon with L’Eau du Sud another 9 off in third. No discussion, hail to the chief.
This is Il Etait Temps sixth Grade 1 victory and but only the second under Paul Townend who has four times picked another Willie Mullins contender. “I feel a little silly but we are making up for it now,” he said before explaining, “ in years gone by, you’d be afraid to ask him for a jump early in case it set him alight. He’s so straightforward and tough now. He’s very small but he’s measured and clean in his jumps, which is what you want any horse to do, whatever size. He’s great.”
That performance saw Il Etait Temps quoted as 5-2 favourite for the Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March in which his stable companion Majborough could emerge as a major rival if that horse passes his own test at Cork this afternoon. That is 2026 but thoughts as far as 2027 began burning after Jonbon’s stablemate Lulamba ran home a devastatingly impressive winner of the Henry VIII Novices Chase over the same Sandown two miles in five seconds quicker time.
What was all the more significant is that at just four years old and in only his second race over fences Lulamba is a long way short of the finished article. His jumping was far from flawless but careful rather than careless, awkward but not reckless over the last. It was after that we saw the impact.
Because Lulamba has got a motor. His rivals Be Aware and Lump Sum came with big reputations but on the run in he left them like stranded dinghies bobbing in his wake. The official distance was 9 lengths. If he had gone much further it could have been 90.
Lulamba is now as short as 2-1 for the Arkle Chase at Cheltenham with bigger things, even the Gold Cup worth dreaming of in 2027, Yes, there is plenty beyond Christmas up ahead.