Dual Champion Chase hero Energumene retired after Punchestown third

Energumene signed off the way top-class chasers hope to, by staying on for a creditable third in the William Hill Champion Chase at Punchestown before Willie Mullins and owner Tony Bloom moved immediately to retirement. The 12-year-old, a dual Queen Mother Champion Chase winner at Cheltenham, was beaten by Il Etait Temps and Marine Nationale but kept finding for Paul Townend, a late flourish that gave his final run the shape of a proper farewell.

It was a fitting last chapter for a horse who stayed relevant deep into his career, even as most elite two-mile chasers have long since moved on. Energumene had already rolled back the years at Fairyhouse on 6 April, when he won the Underwriting Exchange Fairyhouse Chase by six lengths and prompted Mullins to say he would likely take a Punchestown entry before the team reviewed whether to continue. That decision ended up producing one more Grade 1 outing and one more display of the old stamina and class that made him such a force.

His Punchestown third also underlined just how rare his record was. Energumene won the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in 2022 and 2023, making him only the 13th dual winner of the two-mile championship race. He is understood to have won at the Punchestown Festival three times as well, giving him a festival résumé that matched his status at the very top of the division. Across a career that delivered 14 wins, he twice completed the Cheltenham-Punchestown double, a mark of consistency that separated him from most of his contemporaries.

Townend, who has long described Energumene as a "joy" to ride, again praised the horse’s attitude after the race. Mullins said after Fairyhouse that the gelding was still full of ability in the twilight of his career, and the Punchestown performance backed that up one final time. The veteran kept on gallantly to the line, then was retired immediately, closing out one of the standout two-mile chasing careers of recent years.