Il Etait Temps survives late scare to take Champion Chase crown

Il Etait Tempssurvived a final-fence scare to finally conquer the Cheltenham Festival in an enthralling BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Unsuccessful in three previous visits to the showpiece meeting, Willie Mullins’ pint-sized grey was a faller at Ascot on his most recent start but bounced back to the form he showed when winning the Tingle Creek in December.

Most of the early attention was on stablemate and 5-6 favourite Majborough, who having been slightly left at the start soon forced his way to the front and cut a bold sight as Mark Walsh attempted to put his rivals under pressure.

However, he parted the birch five out which gave a glimmer of hope to the chasing pack and another poor jump with the pursuers hot on his tail three out saw Majborough’s efforts come to a premature end.

Henry de Bromhead’s Quilixios and Dan Skelton’s L’Eau Du Sud led the field into the home straight, but the eye was drawn to a motionless Paul Townend aboard Il Etait Temps – who counts former England cricketer Craig Kieswetter among his owners.

Taking the lead on the run to the final fence, the eight-year-old stumbled on the landing side but it made no difference as he galloped to a 10-length success at odds of 5-2 over the fast-finishing Libberty Hunter, who picked up the pieces for second at 50-1 ahead of L’Eau Du Sud.

Reflecting on Il Etait Temps’ heavy fall in January’s Clarence House Chase, Mullins said: “It took him 24 hours to recover when he came home. He was a bit shaken and then he had to get on the ferry and come home and that’s not how you’d like to do it, but it was a case of what we did and once he got home he settled into his routine and recovered quite quickly.

“We just had to get the spark back into him. We took the hood off and tweaked a few things at home and galloped him a bit differently, a bit like Lossiemouth (Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle winner), and it’s worked.

“I thought Paul was very brave on him today as obviously he couldn’t go the pace they were setting for the first mile, but I could see coming down the hill Paul was happy and he had his position coming to the final bend.

“I think the better ground maybe helped him. I was wondering whether he was a horse who didn’t like this place, but when went through his form at Cheltenham we found excuses for every day.

“We took the hood off him as we had to do something different. From when he was a young horse he was very keen and always wore the hood, but when he disappointed we said he had to change something.

“Paul was very good on him today. I had a bit of a heart attack at the last, but it looked he had plenty of horse underneath him.”

Kieswetter added: “I’m a bit speechless to be honest. We’ve all flown over from South Africa, we’ve got the whole family here.

“We never question Willie and Jackie (Mullins) and we’re delighted to be part of the team.

“It’s worth standing in the cold compared to South Africa, I’m very proud of everyone and it’s quite amazing.”