“Not too many,” Paul Townend said with a broad smile here on Friday when asked if he had spotted any weaknesses in Shishkin ahead of his long-awaited first meeting with Energumene in Saturday’s Clarence House Chase at Ascot. “I just see all the 1s alongside his name, so I’ll do a bit of homework tonight, ride the race another 20 times and hopefully we’re still finishing in front.”
Nico de Boinville, Shishkin’s rider, had earlier used words like “fantastic” and “electric” to describe Energumene. If the race was a title fight in Vegas – and there are certainly some similarities – the promoter would be tearing his hair out at the lack of trash talk to shift the last few tickets.
