Clarence House Chase Tips: Energumene To Burst Jonbon Bubble

A small but select field are set to line up for the 2025 Clarence House Chase, with just four runners entered and just a couple of them being the main focus for 99% of people. Billy Grimshaw respects Jonbon massively but the prices just seem wrong, so his selection is obvious...

Before I get stuck into the case of why I'm taking him on, I want to reiterate my respect for Jonbon. He was slated before even running due to the massive price (it doesn't look bad value now with all the prize money he's accrued) JP McManus paid for him back in his early years and then was lambasted as tricky due to some green tendencies when a novice hurdler. He has never been out of the first two in his 19 runs thus far, has only been beaten three times in his entire career and has developed into a rock solid proposition that, most of the time, punters can set their clocks by.

The case against him in here really is all about price. ENERGUMENE is being disrespected in my view by odds compilers at prices around 21 and I cannot resist that level of value. Yes, he is eleven now however he's a young eleven and although his winning return in the Hilly Way as received the classic racing twitter treatment of being good, then bad, then indifferent, then good again and now bad again, there was more than enough signs of life in there for me that this old warhorse still has the fire burning brightly post his injury layoff.

The horse he beat that day was of course Banbridge, who unseated when coming to challenge and was giving Energumene 10lbs, who has since gone on to win the King George. Personally, I think Energumene always had the Hilly Way in control and this was a more than satisfactory return to action. Perhaps he is not quite the force of old, but there has to be more than a faint chance he improves for his first run since the aforementioned layoff and if he does he will give Jonbon more of a race than he has encountered in quite some time.

Racing fans of a certain vintage may remember better Clarence Houses than the one which saw Energumene just denied by a rallying Shishkin a few years ago, but certainly in my time watching NH racing this ranks as the best race I have seen at Ascot and is probably in my top five altogether. The battle was pulsating and if we get even half as good a spectacle on Saturday we are in for a treat. It is unlikely we will see exactly the same Energumene as we did that day, jumping superbly from the front and making Shishkin really have to work for his win, but this two time Champion Chaser knows how to get his rivals in trouble when on song.

Jonbon's latest defeat came after making a juddering mistake and not quite being able to reel in Elixir De Nutz in this race last year (run at Cheltenham a week later due to frozen ground at Ascot). While Joe Tizzard's winner that day was a fine animal, he is not in the class of Energumene and if Jonbon makes errors here, his chance could ebb away. I don't think Jonbon is as good or possesses the rallying quality that Shishkin pulled out of the fire to catch Energumene in the dying strides in 2022, so with all that in mind the Irish raider is the logical play at current odds.

This is also Jonbon's first run at Ascot, while Energumene has of course been here before and ran a stunningly good race in defeat, and the track's stiffness should play to the veteran's strengths. We know Jonbon has the other two runners Edwardstone and Boothill covered, but I don't think he'll get past Energumene who rates one of my better bets on a busy Saturday at the prices. Anything above 6/4 represents value in my opinion.