Marcus Townend reflects on Jonbon's reappearance win in the Shloer Chase and it's importance too.
It wasn’t spectacular, efficient would probably be the best description, but Jonbon delivered a satisfactory victory on his comeback run in the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham.
Beating runner-up Boothill a length and a half at odds of 1/3 is hardly the sort of performance that will get you reaching for the superlatives.
But it was just what trainer Nicky Henderson wanted. It was also what British racing needed.
Top-class steeplechasers are not exactly ten-a-penny this side of the Irish Sea. They currently tend to be gathered in County Carlow and County Meath in the care of Messrs. Mullins and Elliott.
But Jonbon is a flagbearer for the Brits. At the end of last season he was rated the leading steeplechaser trained in this country.
If the home team is going to throw any serious punches in the feature steeplechases at the Cheltenham Festival come March, Jonbon is the most likely one to launch them.
He wasn’t able to do that this Spring. His 2024 Festival was confined to looking over his stable door at Henderson’s Lambourn base as the yard was laid low by a respiratory bug.
As his intended target, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, fell apart with Mullins-trained 2/9 favourite El Fabiolo blundering away his chance as Captain Guinness capitalised, it looked a big opportunity lost.
That is the race that Jonbon needs on his C.V. That is the one, maybe the only one, that counts this season.
Jonbon has an admirable record with 15 wins, eight of them at Grade One level, from 18 runs. But it feels like his achievements are slightly underestimated.
Nico De Boinville’s mount needs the Queen Mother Champion Chase win to secure his place alongside the kings of the two-mile chase division like Master Minded and the horses that also were housed at Henderson’s Seven Barrows stable, Altior, Remittance Man and Sprinter Sacre.
All paths lead to that race via the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown next month and the Clarence House Chase at Ascot in January.
In his snap analysis of Friday’s run, Henderson said: ‘‘He hasn’t really gone fast enough but that was perfect for what we were trying to do. Nico set a lovely fraction, it was comfortable for him. When he wants to push it on, he can let it rip.
‘‘We know some of ours have been needing it more than one would have hoped but as time goes on, they’ll be more forward.
"We know where we are. It is three weeks to the Tingle Creek Chase. That was perfect as a preparation for that.
‘‘He was the one to beat this season and still is but, as we learnt last year, things don’t always go right. We are back in the game.’’
Owner JP McManus paid £570,000 for Jonbon and the gelding took his earning to over £900,000 with this win.
He said: ‘‘I am delighted with him and delighted with that performance. Races here are not easily won. He jumped well and it was his first run of the season and I just felt he was keeping a bit for himself. He just does enough now.’’
Cheltenham theory thrown out of the window
There was a time when there was a theory that Cheltenham was Jonbon’s Achilles Heel. His three losses – all second places - have all come at the track.
Admittedly, one of those came at the hands of unbeaten stablemate Constitution Hill in the 2022 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and another, in the re-scheduled Clarence House Chase in January, when he made a juddering mistake which would have downed the overwhelming majority of horses.
A second successive win in the Shloer Chase shows that Jonbon can take Cheltenham in his stride and it is a positive that a horse who used to live on his nerves appears to have settled down.
Henderson, who also won the Mucking Brilliant Paddy Power Novices’ Chase with Hyland on the opening day of Cheltenham’s November meeting, said: ‘‘He has settled down a lot and in his work at home he is a much more relaxed horse.
‘‘There was not much sweating today and for his first run he will normally have a meltdown. He has won a lot of Grade Ones, hopefully he is admired.’’
Admired, yes. Revered? We will probably only know in March!
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