2025 Tingle Creek Festival: Tingle Creek Chase race analysis and preview 

The highlight of Sandown racecourse’s jump racing season is almost upon us, with the 2025 Tingle Creek Chase due to run this weekend. 

Awarding around £175,000 in prize money, the race is due off at 3pm on Saturday, December 6, headlining a two-day festival at which 13 races will run. 

Almost two miles of Surrey’s countryside, featuring 13 scheduled fences, lie in wait for runners and riders looking to claim victory. 

This year, the race looks set to have three distinct challengers, with only three horses priced under 9/1 to win the race. 

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Il Etait Temps

Il Etait Temps is the current market leader, trading at 4/5 to win trainer Willie Mullins his second Tingle Creek and first since 2016. 

The seven-year-old gelding made a successful seasonal return by comfortably winning a Grade Two contest by 18 lengths at the beginning of November. 

That victory means that he has now won his last four starts, the first three of which were in Grade One races – the latest at Sandown, in the Celebration Chase. 

The Celebration Chase came after almost a year off the track and he has finished inside the first three (six wins) in all nine of his races since finishing fifth in the 2025 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. 

Running in this race has seemingly been the plan for a while, as Mullins’ stable jockey Paul Townend hinted after his winning return, he said: “Willie’s plan before he left (for America and Australia) was the Tingle Creek.

“We always thought an awful lot of him, but he didn’t jump hurdles well. He is only a handy-sized horse, but jumps fences economically and well.

“The engine was always there, but he had been hard on himself and it has taken him time to mature and us time to figure him out.”

L’eau Du Sud

Following the Irish raider in the market is trainer Dan Skelton’s L’eau Du Sud (11/4), who also made a winning return in the Shloer Chase at last month’s Cheltenham meeting. 

In his comments after the race, Skelton said: “I didn’t see that happening – I thought we could win, but we needed an underperformance from the favourite and I think that’s probably the case. 

“I’m not very proud of myself for last year in the Arkle, as I shouldn’t have run him at Warwick before. 

“It took too much out for him and he wasn’t at his best for the festival, but that’s in the past and hopefully we can make up for it in the future.

“He’ll go to the Tingle Creek and then, based on what I got wrong last year, it might have to be straight to the Champion Chase. 

“I wouldn’t leave the door completely shut on Ascot [Clarence House Chase] though.”

It was his first win since January, having lost his way in two Grade One races following four consecutive wins in the beginning of last season. 

Though he wasn’t beaten far in both the Arkle at the Cheltenham Festival or in a Grade One race at the Grand National Festival, he could only manage fifth and third. 

His victories last season featured two Grade Two wins and the other Grade One race at this meeting – the Henry VII Novices’ Chase. 

Jonbon

Back-to-back winner of this race Jonbon comes next in the betting (7/2), as he looks to make it three consecutive Tingle Creek wins. 

He trades at 7/2, with two losses to Il Etait Temps and L’Eau Du Sud in his last two races, bookending wind surgery. 

After his latest run in the Shloer Chase, Henderson said: “This race was much hotter than it was in previous years, but I don’t think you can just say Cheltenham is his bogey because it is not.

“He has won this the last two years, but it’s never his most impressive performance of the season first time out – he’s got away with it the last two years, but by the time you get to Sandown, brilliant.

“It’s three weeks away and that’s not far away and if they re-ran this race in two weeks’ time you couldn’t go anyway. 

“We got this run under his belt and as much as we didn’t want to do it on this ground, we had to do it to get to Sandown – we had to do it.

“It’s quite a big gap to bridge, but we know where the improvement has come from before and I have no doubt there will be some invasion coming over from Ireland as well; we’ll have to consider.”

The 11-time Grade One winner is yet to finish outside the first two in all 25 of his career races, though his Cheltenham hoodoos continued last season, once again ending an unbeaten streak. 

Other favourites

Prior to his third consecutive second-placed effort at the Cheltenham Festival, this time in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the now nine-year-old had won five races in a row – including this race last year. 

His form from the season before reads much the same, having won four of his five races – with his only loss coming at the Gloucestershire course. 

Trainer Gavin Cromwell looks set to send Only By Night over the Irish Sea, as he looks to play his part in upsetting the front three in the market. 

The seven-year-old gelding has won four of his last six races, finishing second in both defeats – the first of which came in the Arkle at the Cheltenham Festival. 

He made a winning return to action in a Grade Three race at Naas last month and is the only other horse given a realistic chance by the market – priced at 10/1. 

Gidleigh Park finished second to Arkle winner Jango Baie when both horses made their seasonal return at Ascot last month. 

It was the second time in as many races where he filled second position, the first of which came in a Grade One at Aintree – behind Impaire Et Passe – and followed a Grade Two victory at Windsor. 

He is priced at 16/1 whilst the rest of the market – headed by Solness – is 20/1 or bigger. 

READ MORE: Tingle Creek Festival 2025: Dates, how to watch on TV, trainers and jockeys to watch