Jonbon wins Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown to join the £1million club… and emulate the great Kauto Star

There was barely time to note that Jonbon had just moved on to millionaire’s row before he was being burdened with the hopes of a nation.

Nothing stirs the soul more in winter than watching two-milers skip across Sandown’s fences — and the course comes alive on Tingle Creek Chase day.

Punters prayed Storm Darragh would not blow this meeting away as they wanted to see Jonbon do just that to his rivals in the Grade One showpiece.

He did not disappoint. Bar one blip at the second fence, Jonbon ran a good quality field into the ground with pinpoint jumping under jockey Nico de Boinville and resolute galloping.

If 20-time champion jockey Sir Anthony McCoy could sport JP McManus’s green-and-gold silks once more, it would be for this horse.

We may be four months from the Cheltenham Festival but it is not a stretch to say Jonbon, whose record is now 16 wins for 19 starts, is Britain’s best hope of landing one of its jewels. Bookmakers slashed his odds for the Queen Mother Champion Chase, and his claims are there for all to see.

Jonbon looked in fine form on Saturday as he raced to an eight-length victory at Sandown

Nico de Boinville was all smiles as he enjoyed the spoils after his Tingle Creek Chase victory

‘He was up for a battle there,’ said trainer Nicky Henderson, who has won the Tingle Creek with illustrious performers Sprinter Sacre and Altior.

‘He is just a real, true terrier — a very high-class terrier, I might add. He just wants to go fasterall the time and he loves to scrap.

‘He’s right up there with the ones we have run before in this race, is he not? He’s jumped that second fence and he must know there are no crocodiles in the ditch but that was the only thing you could pick on. He is the two-miler that will represent our country against whoever is brought over.’

Perhaps Jonbon does not get the credit he deserves because his wonderful c.v. does not have a Cheltenham Festival success on it — he finished second in both the Supreme Novices Hurdle, when crushed by stablemate Constitution Hill in 2022, and the Arkle — but that really must change. 

Yesterday he dismantled the challenge of Quilixios — sent over from Waterford by Henry de Bromhead, who won last season’s Champion Chase with Captain Guinness — with consummate ease to take his career earning to £1,013,556; eight lengths confirmed his superiority.

More significant, though, was the fact he became the first horse since a certain Kauto Star (2005, 2006) to take consecutive renewals of the Tingle Creek. He may have been sent off at a prohibitive price of 8-13 but the roars that carried him up Sandown’s hill confirmed he was well supported.

‘It was so special, coming so quick after what happened last week at Newcastle with Sir Gino (winning the Fighting Fifth Hurdle),’ said de Boinville.

‘To win this race back-to-back is something else. He’s so special, he keeps finding for you.’

Jonbon looks like Britain’s best chance of winning one of the big prizes at Cheltenham in March

Spirit Dancer is due to run in the Hong Kong Vase and Protektorat on Sunday

The gelding’s trainer, Dan Skelton, is keen to get Spirit Dancer at his peak for the Arkle

Maybe on this day next year Jonbon’s attempt for the hat-trick will have an obstacle in the wayby the name of L’Eau du Sud, who maintained the scarcely believable run of form that Sir Alex Ferguson and his friends have enjoyed this last month by justifying odds-on favouritism in the Henry VIII Chase.

There could be more riches to be had on Sunday, with Spirit Dancer, his best Flat horse, running in the Hong Kong Vase and Protektorat, weather-permitting, bidding to take the Peterborough Chase at Huntingdon. L’Eau du Sud will be aimed at the Arkle at Cheltenham in March and has speed to burn.

‘I want to get him absolutely at his peak for the Arkle and we’ve got a pretty exciting contender,’ said trainer Dan Skelton. ‘He’s quite an exuberant jumper and late on it was hard work getting out of it.

‘He was untidy at the last two but the good ones find a way.’