Il Etait Temps won the Queen Mother Champion Chase this afternoon, beating Libberty Hunter under Paul Townend. The eight-year-old nearly threw it away with a mistake at the last fence, but held on to give Willie Mullins a third winner of the day.
The headline result is compelling enough. What makes it extraordinary is everything that came before it.
Three Festivals, No Cigar
Before today, Il Etait Temps had run at the Cheltenham Festival three times. He’d never won.
| Year | Race | SP | Position | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Triumph Hurdle | 12/1 | 5th | Pulled hard, faded flat |
| 2023 | Supreme Novices’ Hurdle | 4/1 | 5th | No impression before last |
| 2024 | Arkle Novices’ Chase | 7/2 | 3rd | Mistake 4 out, kept on, no impression |
Three Grade 1s. Three different disciplines — juvenile hurdle, novice hurdle, novice chase. He wasn’t bad in any of them, but Cheltenham always found him out. He was the horse who travelled nicely but couldn’t close the deal when it mattered.
His career away from Prestbury Park told a different story entirely. Grade 1 wins at Leopardstown, Sandown (twice), Punchestown, Aintree, and Clonmel. Seven top-level victories in total before today. Everywhere else, he was brilliant. At Cheltenham, he was frustratingly close.
Fifty-Three Days After Disaster
Then came January 17th. The Clarence House Chase at Ascot. Il Etait Temps went off at 2/5 — the shortest price of his career. He fell at the second last.
The in-race comment tells the story: “held up in rear, switched left before 5th, awkward 7th, not fluent 9th, chased leader 3 out, soon ridden, dropped to third and fell 2 out.” He was under pressure, struggling to find his rhythm, and then the ground came up to meet him.
Falls at two-mile pace over fences are serious. Confidence takes a hit. Fitness has to be rebuilt from scratch. When Townend said afterwards that “there was a lot of work put into this horse after Ascot,” he wasn’t offering platitudes — he was describing a genuine rehabilitation.
Fifty-three days later, Il Etait Temps lined up for the Champion Chase. Not as favourite. Not even as second favourite. He was behind Majborough in the betting, and the market had its reasons.
The Curse Bites Again
We wrote about this six days ago. The Champion Chase has a specific and brutal problem with short-priced favourites.
Majborough went off odds-on today. He joins a list that now reads like a roll call of broken expectations:
| Year | Favourite | SP | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Majborough | Odds-on | Beaten (poor jumping) |
| 2025 | Jonbon | 5/6 | 2nd |
| 2024 | El Fabiolo | 2/9 | Pulled up |
| 2022 | Shishkin | 5/6 | Pulled up |
| 2021 | Chacun Pour Soi | 8/13 | 3rd |
| 2020 | Defi Du Seuil | 2/5 | 4th |
| 2017 | Douvan | 2/9 | 7th |
| 2016 | Un De Sceaux | 4/6 | 2nd |
Since 2016, just three odds-on favourites have won the Champion Chase: Altior twice and Energumene once. The rest have been beaten, pulled up, or in the case of Douvan, completely imploded. Two miles at racing pace around Cheltenham’s undulations demands accurate jumping above all else, and Majborough’s “poor jumping display” — as the BBC put it — is a direct continuation of the pattern.
Mullins: Three Champion Chase Heartbreaks Before the Breakthrough
There’s a Mullins-specific story within the data too. Before Energumene’s back-to-back wins in 2022-23, the Champion Chase was arguably his most cursed Cheltenham race.
Un De Sceaux at 4/6 in 2016: second. Douvan at 2/9 in 2017: seventh — one of the great Festival shocks. Chacun Pour Soi at 8/13 in 2021: third. El Fabiolo at 2/9 in 2024: pulled up.
Four short-priced Mullins runners. Four defeats. The irony is that today’s victory came not through the stable’s first string, but through a horse who fell last time out and had never won at the track.
The Bottom Line
Il Etait Temps’ career record now reads: eight Grade 1 wins across six different courses. His Cheltenham record reads: 5th, 5th, 3rd, 1st. The fourth time paid for all.
Paul Townend called him “such a courageous horse.” The data backs that up. Falling at Grade 1 pace in January and coming back to win the Champion Chase in March isn’t normal. Doing it at a track that had beaten you three times before is genuinely remarkable.
The Champion Chase continues to defy favourites. It rewarded the comeback horse instead.