Energumene wins dramatic Champion Chase as Shishkin pulled up early

The Queen Mother Champion Chase was billed as round two of heavyweight two-mile chasers Shishkin and Energumene, but in the end, there was only one horse in it.

Shishkin got the better of their first meeting in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot, winning by a length and taking his unbeaten record over fences to seven. But in a dramatic rematch, the Nicky Henderson-trained Shishkin never travelled with any fluency at the back of the pack and was pulled up by Nico de Boinville after jumping the sixth from home.

Energumene (5-2) was always travelling well, despite the very soft ground, and once Chacun Pour Soi had exited when going well toward the head of affairs at the fifth last, Paul Townend’s job appeared much simpler.

Energumene, who had lost his unbeaten record at Ascot, had last year’s winner Put The Kettle on in his sights and turning in, had beaten off the mare.

He picked off Envoi Allen and once setting sail two out, it was Funambule Sivola (40-1) who gave vain chase in second, although he was soon in Townend’s rear-view mirror. The eight-year-old went on to beat his six rivals by eight and a half lengths, with Envoi Allen a further four and a half lengths back in third.

Willie Mullins - winning the race for the first time - said: “We just thought we got the tactics completely wrong at Ascot so the plan today was to follow Shishkin.

“The problem Paul then had was you could see after two fences Shishkin wasn’t handling the ground so it then became a case of when was Paul going to forget about Shishkin and ride the race. Nico was wise in pulling Shishkin up, you could clearly see he hated the ground.

“I was very disappointed to see Chacun Pour Soi go out of the race when he did. I was gutted for Patrick (Mullins)