Henry de Bromhead houses the current Champion Chaser at his stables in Co. Waterford but is sending a stablemate to tackle the ante-post favourite at Sandown on Saturday.
Jonbon was a notable absentee from last season's Queen Mother Champion Chase which saw El Fabiolo sent off the 2/9 favourite but his jumping went to pieces before he was pulled up, leaving the finish to be fought out by Captain Guinness and Gentleman De Mee with the former coming out on top.
Captain Guinness is not the only talented two miler trained by De Bromhead and stablemate Quilixios - also a Cheltenham Festival winner having won the Triumph Hurdle in 2021 - an intended runner at Sandown on Saturday in the Betfair Tingle Creek Chase.
De Bromhead was asked to compare his two stars in a Jockey Club media call and replied: "They are probably two different types.
"Captain Guinness would be more speed and probably only just gets home, like he can often struggle for example at Leopardstown where he will run well but might struggle just to get home over the two miles one.
"Whereas Quilixios would look more like a staying sort of two miler, I'm not saying he's like Sizing Europe but Sizing Europe was more like that, high cruising speed and more a staying kind of two miler."
Sizing Europe remains De Bromhead's only winner of the Tingle Creek Chase to date when scoring impressively by 11 lengths in 2011 but the trainer saddled Special Tiara to finish second in 2017 and concedes that Quilixios may have to settle for the runner-up's berth as well with Jonbon a long odds-on favourite in the antepost books.
"I haven't analysed it [the two mile division] in great depth to be honest," he conceded. "Obviously Jonbon is very good and he's going to be very hard to beat but at least we'll know where we stand for the rest of the season."
Quilixios made a sparkling start to his campaign at Naas with a performance that delighted his trainer:
"I never expect [to win] but very happy with the performance. I thought he jumped great and he galloped to the line well; delighted with him, great to see him back. He seems in great form and we're looking forward to going over."
The 2023/24 season didn't go entirely to plan but the seven-year-old had been off the track for over 600 days prior to winning on his reappearance while De Bromhead blamed himself for trying Quilixios over three miles, saying: "We started him over two and a half at Limerick and we stepped up in trip and just got that wrong last season and we're very happy over two to two and a half.
"Things didn't go right for him in the Arkle and he probably wasn't 100% at Aintree but prior to that the run at Naas was very good and that was his race to take out of last season. He's a fair horse and might just be better fresh as well.
"He had a bit of a mixed season last year so we wanted to see where we were. The first run this year was going to tell us a lot where we were and ridden positively like that, he really enjoyed it and showed us what he is.
"We hope he'll improve for the [reappearance] run as well but he answered all our questions really well and the Tingle Creek was an obvious race to have a go at. I've a fondness for any of these Grade 1s but the Tingle Creek is a famous race and we'd love to be winning it."
There is a good deal of rain in an uncertain forecast but Quilixios is expected to cope with whatever the weather throws up.
"He's got good form on everything," his trainer continued.
"I was probably a little bit concerned about the better ground at Naas the other day but he seemed to handle that really well and he won a good race at Naas back in January on very testing ground so I think he's pretty adaptable."
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