THE rematch between Energumene and Shishkin was billed as the most eagerly awaited race of the Cheltenham Festival. Unfortunately, the Champion Chase did not deliver the promised duel and in fact it was the eaarlier Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase which gave clockwatchers more to talk about.

Let’s deal with the feature race first. Paul Townend dropped Energumene (170) out last of the field of seven and was content to maintain a view of Shishkin even though Nicky Henderson’s star chaser lacked fluency at his early obstacles.