NICKY Henderson has gotten the upper hand over his old foe Willie Mullins in their early-season skirmishes in Britain so far this winter, and the same pair are firmly in the spotlight again today at Ascot for the Grade 1 BetMGM Clarence House Chase (3.32).

Mystical Power failed to fire for Mullins in the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle where Sir Gino was in unstoppable form for Henderson, and a pair of high-profile head-to-heads at Kempton over Christmas both went the way of the Seven Barrows handler. Constitution Hill roared back to life in the Christmas Hurdle over an out-paced Lossiemouth, while Sir Gino was much slicker than Ballyburn in their Wayward Lad dust-up.

Layers are forecasting that Henderson will make it four-nil in this extended series of duels between the top stables when Jonbon squares up with Energumene at Ascot this afternoon. This £175,000 contest has already served up a classic between the two yards. Who could forget the battle royale between Shishkin and Energumene here in 2022?

Shishkin had the edge over today’s challenger on that occasion, but the tables were turned spectacularly in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham when the Ascot scorer pulled up and Energumene coasted to an eight-and-a-half-length triumph on his favourite rain-softened ground.

Only four have been declared for today’s feature, with Edwardstone and Boothill also in the fold, but this really looks to concern just the big two, barring something goes amiss.

For all that Henderson holds the record for most wins in this race (six), Mullins knows exactly what it takes to win the Clarence House too. Un De Sceaux captured three consecutive runnings of the Grade 1 from 2016 to 2018.

Handicapper’s view

The official handicapper only has 1lb separating Jonbon (170) and Energumene (169), though there must be some question over whether the very best will be seen from the latter on ground that yesterday was described as good to soft, good in places. A mild and cloudy build-up to a mainly dry day today (due to be possibly freezing overnight and foggy this morning) doesn’t suggest there will be anything like the dig underfoot that has seen Tony Bloom’s star excel in winning back-to-back Champion Chases.

His supporters will be pinning some level of optimism on the fact Timeform described the ground as good to soft when he won at the Punchestown Festival on his penultimate start back in April 2023.

Jonbon has been a model of consistency in his career and Henderson has already gone on the record as describing him as being in the same league as top names from the stable such as Remittance Man, Altior and Sprinter Sacre. Proper company.

His race record makes for remarkable reading: 19 starts under rules, 16 wins, three seconds. Among that haul is a total of eight Grade 1 victories and in excess of £1 million in prize money. Douvan’s brother has very much written his own story since first coming to prominence as a £570,000 point-to-point recruit.

Speaking to Racing TV, Henderson said: “The Energumene and Shishkin day was built up as something special and it was. It was a real belter of a race, one for the history books.

“Now good old Energumene - and we know how good he is - is back again. It will be a fascinating race and you can’t forget the others as very good horses too. Willie and I have had a couple of scraps over Christmas and we’re very much still talking but we owe him a few after last year and a few other days. It’s him and I again and he will be trying to get his own back.

“Paddy [Murphy], who rides Jonbon every day, is very happy and Nico [de Boinville] jumped five fences on him on Tuesday and he was very happy. We think we are where we need to be for a mega clash.”