Energumene eased to victory in the Queen Mother Champion Chase on day two at the Cheltenham Festival.
The Willie Mullins-trained two-miler relished the soft ground, unlike the favourite Shishkin, who was pulled up. Always going well for Paul Townend, the 5-2 winner was driven out to the line to defeat outsider Funambule Sivola by eight-and-a-half lengths, with Envoi Allen back in third.
Townend told ITV Racing: “I was on a very good horse and you can make it look easy then. He’d won on very heavy ground in Ireland so that wasn’t going to worry us. It didn’t work in Ascot and the tactics kind of went out the window early on as well, he was enjoying himself. I let him jump up there and just kept holding on to him.”
