Il Etait Temps on his way to a sixth Gr 1 victory in the Tingle Creek chase at Sandown on Saturday (Picture: Sky Sports Racing)
The Cheltenham Festival is the holy grail of jumps racing and regarded by many as the greatest horseracing meeting, jumps or flat, on earth and Hollywood Racing would probably not in their wildest dreams have believed their first jumps horse, owned in partnership with the Kieswetter family’s Barnane Stud, would one day be a six-time Gr 1 winner and ante-post favourite for the festival’s top two mile event, the Gr 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Their Willie Mullins-trained star jumps horse, Il Etait Temps, routed the opposition in the Gr 1 Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown on Saturday, a race regarded as a leading pointer to the Champion Chase and won before by such legends as Desert Orchid, Viking Flagship and Kauto Star.
Il Etait Temps denied the Nicky Henderson-trained Jonbon a hattrick in the Tingle Creek when pulling clear after the pond fence, which is three fences from home.
Click here to read about Il Etait Temps’ Tingle Creek triumph
