Energumene makes winning return in Hilly Way Chase

Dual Champion Chase winner Energumene made a winning reappearance from a near 600-day absence when making most to land the featured Grade 2 Bar One Racing Hilly Way Chase at Cork.

Off the track since winning a Grade 1 at the Punchestown festival in April 2023, the Willie Mullins trained gelding made light of that absence when taking this Cork feature for the third time.

Leading for much of the race, the 10-year-old was less than fluent at the third last, allowing nearest pursuer Banbridge a chance to get closer.

A good jump at the penultimate fence saw the Tony Bloom owned gelding extend his advantage. However, Banbridge was still in contention, staying on under Richie Deegan when coming down at the last.

That allowed Energumene to coast home 10 lengths clear of stablemate Dinoblue

Willie Mullins said: "That was a very exuberant display from him. I thought Dinoblue would make more of the running but Paul (Townend) said his horse was just looking for fences to jump and wanted to go a better gallop, so he left him on instead of fighting him.

"I was very happy with how he jumped and he had been doing everything right since her came back in August. Hopefully he can keep going that way and it was a nice performance to build on for the season.

"He didn't look like he needed the run, galloped the whole way to the line and had looked excellent since he came in.

"Normally we skip Christmas (with his Hilly Way Chase winners) and the Clarence House Chase was what we did previously so we'll see how he comes out of it before making any decision.

"I'm told Ferny Hollow is fine and the news back is that that he is good and came home and I was very happy with how most of the rest ran. It was nice to get them out and started for the season so we'll try and find opportunities for them."

Paddy Power went 5/1(from 10) Energumene for the Champion Chase.

Additional reporting by Thomas Weekes.