Jonbon 'lost the battle but not the war' - how some shuddering jumping errors settled the Clarence House Chase

Jumping won and lost the day in the Clarence House Chase with winner Elixir De Nutz settling into a lovely rhythm early on as long odds-on favourite Jonbon struggled to find his flow. 

The first mistake was actually made by last year's winner Editeur Du Gite, who can be tough to peg back from the front but a jolting error at the third fence put him on the back foot and he could never build up the type of lead he was able establish last year.    

Jonbon too was scratchy at the third and spent a lot of time in the air at the fourth but he was starting to take much closer order when he lost ground with slow leaps at the seventh and eighth. However, it was at the fourth-last that his race really started to unravel. 

Taking off far too early, he scrambled to the other side, lost his back legs in the process but somehow stayed upright with James Bowen doing remarkably well to stay on board.  

Jonbon hits the floor after making a bad mistake at the fourth-last fence

He was relegated back to fourth but Elixir De Nutz ploughing through the third-last meant the door remained ajar for Jonbon. Fair play to the favourite, who was back upsides the eventual winner at the second-last, but another hesitant jump from Jonbon at the last, and a big one when he needed it by Elixir De Nutz, changed the complexion of the race once more.

Elixir De Nutz crashes through the third-last fenceCredit: Racing TV

With the wind in his sail, Elixir De Nutz managed to maintain his lead to the line, although Jonbon was starting to close again in the dying strides to go down by just a neck. 

Reacting to Jonbon's indifferent jumping and shock defeat, Nicky Henderson said: "James Bowen said he did remarkably well to get back to where he did, but he'd had a fair bit of ground to make up. 

Jonbon made up ground and jumped the last upside Elixir De Nutz, but was slow over it and despite fighting back on the run-in, he was beaten by a neck

"It's a pity he didn't see a nice stride at the last because I think if he'd have winged that he wouldn't have lost his momentum, which let the other horse back. He lost the battle but not the war. 

"He's quite a busy person and lives on his wits a little bit, so an extra week wasn't exactly what he wanted. We can unwind him now and start again. I was really looking forward to taking on El Fabiolo last weekend and I can't believe today has changed anything dramatically."

Coral pushed Jonbon out to 7-2 (from 9-4) for the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase with El Fabiolo shortening to 1-2 (from 8-11) at the head of the market with the same bookmaker. Elixir De Nutz was trimmed to 33-1 (from 50-1) to cause another upset in March.

Read this next:

Emotional win for team Tizzard as Freddie Gingell and Elixir De Nutz deny 1-4 Jonbon

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.