Il Etait Temps won the Betfair Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown | report and free video replay

Jonbon had won the last two renewals of the Grade 1 but defeat at the hands of Il Etait Temps in the course and distance Celebration Chase in the spring and to L'Eau Du Sud in the Shloer Chase on his reappearance suggested that the nine-year-old's star was on the wane.

His younger rival was made the 8/11 favourite and tracked Jonbon and L'Eau Du Sud through the early exchanges as Boothill and Libberty Hunter watched on from the rear, waiting to take advantage of any mishaps.

None came as the field largely jumped well with Jonbon, in first time cheekpieces, taking them along until the Pond Fence where he still held a marginal advantage but with challengers on either side.

Il Etait Temps slipped up his inside on the turn with Townend scraping paint and edged into a clear lead. Jonbon refused to go down without a fight and was almost alongsides at the second last but Il Etait Temps landed running and eased two or three lengths clear approaching the last.

The grey took that flight with elan whereas Jonbon gave it more air; the defeated champion plugged on, finishing nine lengths clear of the disappointing L'Eau Du Sud but neither was a match for Il Etait Temps who crossed the line nine lengths to the good.

Sky Bet cut Il Etait Temps to 7/2 second favourite for the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March, behind stablemate Majborough who is set to get the chance to state his case in the Hilly Way Chase at Cork on Sunday.

Horse of a lifetime

Wayne Kieswetter of owners Hollywood Racing & Barnane Stud told Racing TV: "It's a horse of a lifetime isn't it? This is his sixth Grade 1 now so what can you say? These fellows don't come along that often.

"Our runner came second in the Guineas at home but that's why we're here, not for the Guineas back home, it's once in a lifetime for us. We love this horse. He's small but he's actually maturing and becoming better and better which is nice to see.

"My youngest son wanted to get us into jumps and we bought a few mares which luckily enough won a few Grade 1s along the way. We spoke to Willie and said let's look for a nice gelding and we found this boy in France. He wasn't the best hurdler, he used to crash through the jumps more than jump them but Willie said 'we'll stick him in front of the jumps, it will teach him to settle down' and he was exactly right."

When asked about running plans between now and the Cheltenham Festival, Kieswetter was happy to leave that to the trainer, replying: "We'll leave that to Willie the Wizard.

"I think we might go to Leopardstown and, then, from there, we always hope for Cheltenham, that's the only box he hasn't ticked yet, and if all goes well we might get to Cheltenham."

Townend was interviewed on the way back to the winner's enclosure on ITV Racing and said: "He answered every question I asked him today.

"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 went through the race really, really easily today and because he's relaxed so much now you can do what you want with him. In years gone past you'd be afraid to ask him for a jump early in case you set him alight and you wouldn't get him back but he's so straightforward now and so tough.

"He's measured [in his jumping], he's clean, he's what you want every horse to do whatever their size and he's brave. "

No excuses for vanquished

Jonbon's trainer Nicky Henderson said: “When the winner beat us here last year it was at the end of a long season, but today proves that over two miles he is a sharper horse than we are. You have to be tempted to look at going over further with him now. But let’s just see. Nothing is in and nothing is out.

“We put the cheekpieces on him today and were always going to lead. The horse loved it today – he jumped and galloped.

“He has come on from the Shloer at Cheltenham to do what he has done today – which probably would have been good enough to win the last two Tingle Creeks. There are no excuses with the ground. If you can’t go on the ground on the chase course here today, you can’t go on anything.”

It was a similar story for L'Eau Du Sud's trainer Dan Skelton who commented: “There are no excuses. We knew Jonbon was going to improve and Il Etait Temps was going to be difficult to beat.”

Although Skelton does believe that L'Eau Du Sud didn't run up to his best, continuing: "I don’t think we were at our best today, but I am very happy.

“We’ll have to get him super fresh, and he’ll go straight to the Champion Chase now – we’ll try and have him in the form he was in for the Shloer at Cheltenham. We kept him fresh for today and hoped we had him in the same form at Cheltenham. There were no negatives, but it just didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to."

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