Our man at the track with his take on Il Etait Temps' victory in the Betfair Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown.
“Ready to Tingle?” the large badges being handed out to racegoers at Sandown Park on Saturday ask.
And they are. A brass band belting out festive favourites, mince pies, yellow Betfair scarves, everything was up for grabs.
A healthy crowd was here to party, sadly some to rumble before and during the final race, but most were here to watch an epic renewal of the feature race.
Mullins versus Skelton versus Henderson.
The young legs of Il Etait Temps and L’Eau Du Sud taking aim at the dual-winner Jonbon who was wearing cheekpieces for the first time.
And as they left Sandown, the brass band still playing, those racegoers knew they’d witnessed a changing of the guard.
Because Jonbon gave it one helluva go from the front. He tried to run the finish out of the stalkers.
L’Eau Du Sud never looked like confirming his Shloer Chase superiority over the leader but in behind, Paul Townend was sitting on a lot of horse aboard Il Etait Temps.
He was through on the inside and to the front at the second last and the Betfair Tingle Creek was heading to Closutton for the first time since Un De Sceaux’s success in 2016.
Il Etait Temps is the last to return to the winners’ enclosure. In behind Jonbon circles in the runner-up spot, the rain-sodden turf squelching with his every move. JP McManus is leaning against the rails talking to Nicky Henderson.
No excuses forthcoming, they didn’t need any.
Dan Skelton is happy to hold court as well, a rare Saturday for him this season that the big prize has eluded his grasp.
But this was a very simple race to assess. Il Etait Temps was much the best.
He’d been the best in the Celebration Chase in the spring when some put his superiority down to freshness against rivals who’d danced every dance throughout the campaign.
But now he’s beginning to really look the finished article. Two from two this term, his Timeform rating soaring. When he gets back to his box in Ireland, Majborough will already have departed for his own reappearance at Cork in the Hilly Way on Sunday.
He’s going to have to go some to match this.
Willie Mullins isn’t here, the winning owners are but all eyes are on Townend. And he’s a man in a hurry.
He has a plane to catch and seems to know all about the traffic to Heathrow Airport, even on a Saturday afternoon.
Protocol goes out the window as he accepts his trophy first but he hangs around for the photos and even answers three additional questions from the press as he returns, backwards and step by step, to the weighing room, and then home.
Mullins’ pre-Christmas raids in Britain have been sporadic in recent years and far from successful too.
But this was a long-term plan. Form the moment he won in April all roads led back here. There was a clear run through the autumn, a prep race at Clonmel, and now he’s won a fourth Grade One over fences.
As you watch a replay of the race you can’t help but marvel at the power, the polish in the performance.
And Townend questions how he had previously allowed the grey to become Danny Mullins’ mount on big days.
“I feel a bit silly for not picking him so many times in his career but thankfully we're getting on him now and he's living up to all the promise he showed as a young horse," he smiles.
And with that, he’s gone.
The younger generation are beginning to stack up in the wings of the main stage.
Take Lulamba for example. He absolutely routed his rivals in the Betfair Henry VIII Novices' Chase.
He’s a rising star no doubt but one who’s trained by Nicky Henderson and owned by Joe and Marie Donnelly. They also have Sir Gino at Seven Barrows.
He was last year’s poster boy novice chaser in Britain before an infected leg wound left him fighting for his life rather than the Irish raiders at Cheltenham in March.
Thankfully he’s now fully recovered and heading to Kempton at Christmas for either the Desert Orchid Chase, in which case he’s Champion Chase material, or the Christmas Hurdle, in which case... you’ve worked it out, haven’t you.
“He’ll go to Kempton,” Henderson smiles as he’s taken by the arm to the presentation ceremony. “But I don’t know if it will be over hurdles or fences. Constitution Hill is in the mix there but I don’t think he’ll go,” and with that he’s whisked away.
But by the time the media swarm around him to get the fall-out from Jonbon, the cat is nearly out the bag.
“He’ll run over hurdles won’t he?” Alice Plunkett asks. “Probably,” Henderson responds.
Lulamba will, all being well, race twice between now and the Arkle, his confirmed spring target. The Game Spirit is likely to be race two on that schedule, it’s just a case of where he stops en route.
You sensed he surprised connections with the speed he displayed at Sandown and is a most exciting prospect. All he needs now is a clear run through to the end of the season.
And after the storms that he’s faced in the last two springs, no-one would begrudge Henderson that with all of his stable stars this time around.
Nor Il Etait Temps who missed all of last season bar the final day of it following his own setback.
Keeping the wheels on the jumping superstars is more than half the battle. So when they’re fit, healthy and at the top of their game, it’s time to enjoy them.
This wasn’t a Saturday of what-ifs like the previous one. It was one of simple clarification. In the two-mile chasing department we’re seeing a changing of the guard.
Majborough and Marine Nationale wait in the wings. The lack of depth in the two-mile hurdling division can be traced to so many good horses being sent over fences straight after their novice campaigns.
It might weaken the day-one highlight at Cheltenham, but it's promising to serve up a real humdinger 24 hours later.
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