Energumene defended the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase crown with an impressive display to land a major gamble after going off at 6/5 with one punter placing a £400,000 bet on the winner.
And the champion horse made it back to back wins for Willie Mullins in the two-mile race as he bolted home to beat Captain Guinness. It took Irish trainer Willie Mullins, the most successful trainer in Cheltenham Festival history, 34 years to win the Champion Chase but with Energumene he has now made it two in a row. The feature race of Ladies’ Day got off at 3.30pm and Funambule Siivola was a faller at the third in the seven-runner race. With heavy rain fall, conditions were testing and Edwardstone looked uncomfortable early on.
Jockey Tom Cannon manoeuvred him into the early pacesetters but he struggled and had no chance of making up the ground and Energumene, a horse whose name loosely translates from French to ‘weirdo’, romped up the hill to victory.
Owner Tony Bloom said: "We were really confident going into this. The rain made us extra confident. I had a good few quid on it."
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