There are few finer sights in soar racing than Jonbon in full circulate over the Sandown fences and the apple of proprietor JP McManus’s eye silenced any remaining critics with a dominant success within the Grade 1 bet365 Celebration Chase.
In his belated third conflict with El Fabiolo, Jonbon was forcefully ridden by Nico de Boinville and, though he took the odd probability over his fences, he by no means appeared more likely to be headed as he took his document to 14 wins and three seconds underneath guidelines.
Scratched from a Champion Chase showdown with El Fabiolo at Cheltenham in March after the wheels fell off the Seven Barrows bandwagon, Jonbon proved his good well being when profitable over two and half miles at Aintree this month and was razor-sharp on his return to the minimal journey as he registered back-to-back wins within the Celebration.
“This horse is essential to everyone and a flagship actually,” stated coach Nicky Henderson. “JP and I speak loads however the superb factor is each dialog begins, ‘How’s Jonbon?’. One other horse is fortunate to get a point out within the dialog. I feel this horse means loads to him and he means loads to me.
“You could possibly have practically fined him for rushing in the present day however you needed to go and do this. We knew every week in the past that we had been going to need to exit and drum this race and make it a correct check. We needed to check stamina, as a result of we all know Jonbon stays two and a half miles, and check everyone’s leaping, together with his. He’s not flawless as you noticed within the Clarence Home however Nico and Jonbon are two courageous individuals.
“It’s only a disgrace he couldn’t have been at Cheltenham however I feel he’s regained his place within the pecking order of two-mile chasers.”
Fast sufficient for 2 miles, already a winner at two and a half and with the potential to remain three, Jonbon has not made it simple for connections heading into subsequent season and Henderson thought it will take many of the summer time to formulate a plan.
“I used to be pondering the Ascot chase [1965 Chase, over 2m5f] is likely to be the place to start out him subsequent season,” stated Henderson. “Nico is now speaking about three miles whereas at Aintree he was saying return to 2 miles. We are able to’t ask the horse, so we’ve solely obtained to ask ourselves the place his optimum is.
“We’ve obtained all summer time however when he’s dusting it up like that and making it a correct check of leaping and galloping he’s fairly rattling good.”
Whereas El Fabiolo’s second was sufficient to safe Willie Mullins his first trainers’ title in Britain, his leaping unravelled underneath the check set by the winner.
“I believed he was destined for fourth coming to the second-last so to get again as much as be second was an excellent run however leaping was our problem and he should enhance,” stated Mullins.
Rider Paul Townend added: “He battled effectively to get again up for second however in all probability simply missed too many fences to get into an excellent circulate.”
Edwardstone put a fall on the second-last within the Champion Chase behind him with a detailed third underneath Tom Cannon, who stated: “It was a really strong run. He settled properly and there have been no excuses.”
There was a tragic postscript to the race with Elixir De Nutz, a Grade 1 winner over fences and hurdles, struggling what proved a deadly damage when falling on the second-last fence.