English/Ire
Il Etait Temps toys with Champion Chase rivals
Il Etait Temps put up a sparkling performance to run out an authoritative winner of the BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase.
A winner of the Tingle Creek at Sandown in December, Il Etait Temps suffered a heavy fall when looking in held in the Celebration Chase at Ascot last time out and was looking to bounce back to his best in search of a first Cheltenham Festival success.
Majborough soon worked his way to the front and looked to be in a nice jumping rhythm under Mark Walsh, but the 5/6 favourite made a bad mistake five out and following another sizeable error at the third last, JP McManus' six-year-old found his race had been run.
It was at this point that Harry Skelton took a peep behind him in search of dangers on the strong-travelling L'Eau Du Sud, but he wouldn't have liked what he saw, as Paul Townend sat motionless aboard Il Etait Temps, with Quilixios also in the hunt.
L'Eau Du Sud still held sway upon entering the straight, but the eye was always drawn to Il Etait Temps, who after surging to the front on the approach to the final flight, survived a last-gasp blunder before cruising away to record a facile ten-length victory.
50/1 shot Libberty Hunter stayed on well up the Cheltenham hill to grab second ahead of L'Eau Du Sud.
"I thought Paul was very brave on him," said Mullins of the 5/2 winner. "He couldn't go the pace they were setting for the first mile; he sat and sat, and coming down the hill we could all see that the further he was going, the better he was going.
"I nearly had a heart attack at the last fence though!
"Taking the hood off and this ground made a big difference to him as well."
Il Etait Temps, whose ownership group includes England cricketer Craig Kieswetter, had previously failed to fire in three previous visits to the Cheltenham Festival.
Mullins added: "That was way his best performance at Cheltenham. I was wondering, was he a horse that didn't like this place? But when we went through his form here, we found excuses for every run.
"It probably took him 24 hours to recover when he came home from Ascot. He was a bit shaken but once he got home, he settled into his own routine and he recovered quite quickly.
"He was always going to run in this race, but we had to get the old spark back into him.
"He doesn't need the hood anymore, so that was number one, plus we just galloped him a bit differently, a bit like Lossiemouth."
On the performance of Majborough, who ultimately finished a well-beaten seventh, Mullins said: "Majborough was going so well at home, but then he made that first little error, then the second one.
"He makes life hard for himself, so we will have to wait and see. Hopefully there is a big one in him one day."
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