Betfair Tingle Creek Chase: guide to runners plus tip

Official Rating: 153. RaceiQ Jump Index: 7.4. Odds: 50-1. 

Boothill chased home Jonbon in the Henry VIII Chase on this day in 2022 and has been an intended runner in this race for the past two years, only to be a late non-runner each time (heavy ground in 2023 and travel problems last year). He’s not been the luckiest horse throughout his career, suffering several untimely tumbles along his journey. 

He’s now a ten-year-old and since the Tingle Creek was first run, in 1969, only one winner, Moscow Flyer, has been older than nine. Nobody is suggesting that Boothill is in anything like his league, and he looks to be making up the numbers after beginning this campaign with a lacklustre effort at Ascot, when pulled up. 

Official Rating: 154. Jump Index: 7.4. Odds:40-1. 

Edwardstone is the old man of the party, at 11 years of age, and is set to run at this meeting for the fifth successive year. 

He won the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase in 2021, then returned 12 months later to take this prize. Runner-up in 2023, he was again well fancied 12 months ago but fell four out. 

Not surprisingly, his powers are on the wane. He was a well-beaten fourth behind Il Etait Temps in the Celebration Chase, here in April, and faded to finish a distant fourth to  

L’Eau Du Sud on his return in the Shloer Chase at Cheltenham last month. 

He probably needed that run, but you need a vivid imagination to believe he can turn the tables. 

Official Rating:  169. Jump Index: 8. Odds: 11-10. 

“The engine was always there but he'd been hard on himself and it's taken him time to mature, and us time to figure him out,” said Willie Mullins after Il Etait Temps emerged from a year on the sidelines to win the Celebration Chase in imperious style at Sandown in April. 

He could not have been more impressive, beating Jonbon by 5½ lengths with plenty left in the locker. The E Team of Energumene and Edwardstone were the next pair home, finishing well adrift. 

That was the grey’s fifth Grade One triumph, from 13 runs at the highest level, but he was a revelation, gaining almost 11 lengths with his jumping and finding everything coming easy to him. 

In an instant, the seven-year-old had stamped himself as a Champion Chase candidate and he went some way to confirming that when breezing home on his return in the 2m 4f Clonmel Oil Chase last month. He was up against three inferior rivals but the way he picked off front-running Senecia was still taking. 

As a novice, a couple of seasons ago, his jumping betrayed him when he was third to Gaelic Warrior in the Arkle, but he signed off with victories at Aintree and Punchestown. He turned the tables on Gaelic Warrior at the latter track, and perhaps did not get the credit he deserved. 

Mullins struck with his first Tingle Creek runner, Un De Sceaux, in 2016, but has since been out of luck. Un De Sceaux was subsequently second in both 2018 and 2019, while the odds-on Chacun Pour Soi fluffed his lines when last of five in 2021. Meanwhile, Gentleman De Mee was fourth in 2022. 

Official Rating:  167. Jump Index: 7.2. Odds: 7-2. 

Jonbon presents punters with a conundrum. On the one hand, his only defeat in six Grade One races over fences at Sandown came when runner-up to Il Etait Temps in the Celebration Chase here in April. 

He had won the previous two editions of that race and is seeking become only the second triple winner of this contest. And before that, he had also won the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase here in 2022. Overall, Douvan’s little brother has won 18 of his 24 races and never been out of the first two. 

But weighed against that, he seems to be struggling to recapture his best, arriving with something to prove after his disappointing comeback run in the Shloer Chase last month when trounced 15 lengths by L’Eau Du Sud. 

A defiant Nicky Henderson said afterwards that Jonbon has always taken a big step forward for his customary comeback in that race but the facts reveal a different story. 

BHA handicapper Chris Nash had Jonbon running to a mark of 170 when landing the Shloer Chase on testing ground in emphatic fashion in 2023, but “only” 166 when a workmanlike winner of the Tingle Creek a few weeks later. Last year, he rated his Shloer Chase performance as a 163, followed by a marginally better 166 at Sandown. 

Past evidence, then, suggests it is a myth that Jonbon will make a quantum leap on Saturday. And that must be a big worry because Nash had him running to a figure of just 150 in the latest Shloer. 

According to the official assessors, he has not been operating at his peak since the spring of 2024, when he ran to a rating of 170 at Aintree and Sandown. 

He was put in his place by Il Etait Temps in the Celebration Chase at Sandown in April, and they meet again after hugely contrasting prep runs. 

Moreover, Jonbon seemed to resent being hassled for the lead last time and his jumping, such a weapon in the past, has become less reliable. RaceiQ only awarded him 6 out of 10 for his jumping last time, and the new kids on the block are more compelling. 

Official Rating:  163. Jump Index: 7.8. Odds: 3-1. 

It was impossible not to be impressed by the way L’Eau Su Sud routed the opposition in the Shloer Chase last month, for all that the race rather fell apart, with Jonbon among those who underperformed. 

He jumped and travelled with typical zest, bounding clear in the closing stages with Harry Skelton motionless, bar looking over his shoulder for non-existent dangers. 

L’Eau Su Sud is a strong traveller but did not fully convince when push came to shove as a novice last season, seeming to have his limits exposed when fourth in the Arkle before spurning a good opportunity at Aintree. The latter destination was probably one race too many. 

The question now is whether he can back up what he did in the Shloer, when the handicapper reckons he improved 8lb on anything he has done before. 

Dan Skelton had him primed for the day (he had intended running him in a handicap at Ascot a fortnight earlier) and it would be dangerous to assume there will be much more improvement in him, but a repeat of that effort alone would almost certainly put him bang in the picture. 

Last year, he won a handicap at The November Meeting before coming on here and landing the Henry VIII Novices’ Chase, although he ended up winning ugly. 

Official Rating: 151. Jump Index: 7.7. Odds: 33-1. 

The nine-year-old is lightly raced for his age, no doubt partly because he wants proper “winter ground”. He is most effective when the mud is flying, so his connections will be hoping for a wet week. 

He’s a horse who has improved in chunks, winning handicaps off marks of 122, 132 and 144 in the past couple of years. 

A tilt at the Champion Chase last season looked ambitious, especially after he had played second fiddle to Master Chewy in the Game Spirit, but he was moving along sweetly not far behind the leaders when coming to grief three out. It was too far out to be certain where he would have finished. 

He jumps well most of the time but is inclined to make the odd error. That happened again on his return in the Shloer, when he exited at the sixth. 

Il Etait Temps was awesome when winning here in April after a year off and, having also cruised home on his return, is difficult to oppose. Jonbon’s record here speaks for itself but he was about 20lb below form on his return and will have to be transformed if he is to retain his crown. L’Eau Du Sud looks a better bet for the forecast.