Talking Horses: let’s hope for Shishkin v Energumene II at Cheltenham

As countless football managers have discovered over the years, the hardest thing of all to manage is the fans’ expectations. Amid the euphoria after Saturday’s Clarence House Chase at Ascot, though, a race that promised much and delivered even more, it was only natural that thoughts would soon turn towards Shishkin vs Energumene II: the Rematch. If both horses turn up and if both run to form, the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham on 16 March seems certain to be the race of the Festival.

But those are, of course, two very big “ifs” right there, and if racing history tells us anything, it is that you can only hope, and never expect. Saturday felt like the kind of race we are fortunate to see once in a decade, not twice in the space of eight weeks.

Such concerns are unlikely to affect the demand for tickets for the second afternoon of the Festival, however, and day two of the meeting just happens to be the one that is in need of a bit of a lift. Wednesday’s card slipped to the bottom of the attendance list in 2011 and shifted just 57,000 tickets in 2019, the only day of the four which did not pull in at least 60,000 racegoers.

If the prospect of a rematch between Shishkin and Energumene does not see an uptick in sales, then nothing will, although it has to be said that Ascot’s crowd on Saturday was not noticeably swelled by their much-anticipated first encounter. The likelihood, perhaps, is that many occasional racegoers plan their trips to the track weeks in advance, to fit in with wider groups of friends or colleagues. They already had plans by the time a very welcome, but equally unexpected, head-to-head crystallised a few days before the race itself.

Like it or not – and there are plenty of National Hunt