Craig Kieswetter leads in Il Etait Temps after his Gr 1 win at Punchestown in May (Picture: Brian Lawless/PA)
Il Etait Temps, the crack jumps horse owned by the Hollywood Syndicate and the Kieswetters’ Barnane Stud, has some big targets this season, but he has unfortunately had to be scratched from his engagement on Sunday in the Gr 1 John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase due to an issue.
His Willie Mullins-trained stablemate, the Cheltenham Festival’s Gr 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase winner Fact To File, is the 15/10 favourite for the John Durkan Memorial and his illustrious Mullins-trained stablemate, the twice Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs, is third favourite at 7/2.
Il Etait Temps holds entries in the famous Gr 1 Kempton Ladbrokes King George VI Chase (Grade 1) over three miles at Kempton on Boxing Day, for which he is the joint second favourite in the ante-post market at 10/1 together with Galopin Des Champs and the Dan Skelton-trained Grey Dawning, with the favourite being the Mullins-trained Gaelic Warrior, whom Il Etait Temps has beaten in two Gr 1 chases but he lost to him in the Gr 1 Arkle at the Cheltenham Festival.
When Il Etait Temps won the Gr 1 Barberstown Castle Novice Chase at Punchestown on May 2 it clinched a new world record for Mullins as it took him to 35 Gr 1 wins for the season, breaking his own 2015/2016 season record.
Il Etait Temps is at his best from two miles to two-and-a-half miles so his entries for next year’s Cheltenham Festival are in the BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase (Grade 1) over two miles and in the Ryanair Chase (Registered As The Festival Trophy) (Grade 1) over two miles and four-and-a-half furlongs.
