Who Is Il Etait Temps? The Champion Chase Winner Returns at Clonmel

Who is the Il Etait Temps racehorse?

The Il Etait Temps racehorse is an 8-year-old French-bred grey steeplechaser trained by Willie Mullins in Ireland and ridden by Paul Townend, and he was the best two-mile chaser of the 2025-26 season. On Thursday, Nov. 5, 2026, he makes his seasonal debut as defending champion in the Grade 2 Clonmel Oil Chase at Clonmel's Powerstown Park.

He races for the Hollywood Syndicate and Barnane Stud, a partnership that includes former England cricketer Craig Kieswetter. RTÉ described him as a "pint-sized grey" on the day he won at Cheltenham, and the name is French for "it was about time."

That name turned out to fit. He needed four tries to win at the Cheltenham Festival, and he did it in March 2026.

Clonmel Oil Chase 2026: the comeback race

The race is off at 3:10pm Irish time over 2 miles, 4 furlongs and 171 yards, so just under 2 miles 5 furlongs. Only four horses were declared:

• Il Etait Temps (Paul Townend, Willie Mullins): the defending champion
• Kappa Jy Pyke (Danny Mullins, Willie Mullins): a stablemate who won a Grade 3 novice chase at Punchestown and was second in a Grade 1 at Fairyhouse last season
• Blaze The Way (J.J. Slevin, Margaret Mullins): a Grade 3 winner at Cheltenham last season
• Herja (Harry Sexton, Mrs P. Griffin): a mare who was third in the Racing Post Chase at Down Royal last weekend

On Racing Post Ratings, Il Etait Temps is 15 lb clear of Kappa Jy Pyke. Kappa Jy Pyke carries 10 lb less, but that's well short of the gap between them.

A year ago he won this race by 18 lengths from Senecia. Willie Mullins is going for a fifth straight win in it, and Racing Post counts ten wins for him since 2013 with horses such as Blue Lord, Allaho and Saint Sam.

If Il Etait Temps wins again, the Meath Chronicle notes he would be only the third horse to win the race more than once. The other two are Dorans Pride and Tranquil Lake.

Result status: when we published, the race had not been run and no official result was out. Check Racing Post or Sporting Life for the confirmed result.

His career highlights

He isn't a horse who has won every time. What stands out is how well he has come back from setbacks.

That adds up to four wins from five starts last season, three of them at Grade 1 level.

The Ascot fall and the fix

After the Ascot fall, the team took off his hood and changed how he galloped at home. As Mullins put it after Cheltenham, they "just had to get the spark back into him." Less than two months after the fall, he won the Champion Chase.

Even there, he stumbled on landing over the last fence and still won by 10 lengths from Libberty Hunter. His stablemate Majborough was the favourite, but jumping errors ended his chance. To learn what vets and stewards do when a horse falls, see our guide to what happens when a horse falls in a race.

The two-mile chasing season, explained

A steeplechase, or "chase," is a jump race over big, solid fences. Two-mile chasers are the sprinters of jump racing: they need speed and quick, accurate jumping.

What is the Champion Chase?

The Queen Mother Champion Chase is the top two-mile chase of the season. It's a Grade 1 run at the Cheltenham Festival in March, and winning it makes a horse the unofficial two-mile champion. If the Grade system is new to you, read what a Grade 1 race is.

Punchestown's own Champion Chase in late April is the Irish rematch at the end of the season. Il Etait Temps won both in 2026.

Why Clonmel and the Tingle Creek matter

Top jumpers race only a handful of times a season, so each run has a job:

1. Reappearance (November): a softer Grade 2 like the Clonmel Oil Chase gets a horse fit after the summer break without a full championship fight.
2. First Grade 1 (December): the Tingle Creek at Sandown is often the first big clash between the two-milers.
3. Midwinter tests (January-February): races like the Clarence House at Ascot.
4. Cheltenham (March): the Champion Chase is the main goal.
5. Punchestown (late April): the season finale.

Clonmel is more than half a mile longer than the two-mile championship trip, so it asks a little more stamina of a horse having his first run of the season.

What does a rating of 181 mean?

Ratings measure ability in pounds. The higher the number, the better the horse. A 1 lb gap is a small but real difference on the track.

There are two numbers to know:

• Official rating (OR): set by the racing authority's handicappers. Il Etait Temps is listed at 174 on today's racecard.
• Racing Post Rating (RPR): Racing Post's own private figure. His is 181, the number most previews quote.

A rating in the 170s puts a chaser among the very best in training. New to the jargon? The glossary covers terms like stablemate, going and pulled up.

Other big names this week

Il Etait Temps isn't the only big name in the headlines this week:

• Dinoblue, Mullins' 9-year-old mare, was declared for the Listed T.A. Morris Memorial Mares Chase at Clonmel (2:35pm) but is now a non-runner, according to the official Horse Racing Ireland racecard, so her comeback will have to wait. She won her last four starts last season, and her official rating of 159 put her 37 lb clear of the best of her four rivals.
• The Big Westerner won the Listed Michael Hickey Memorial Chase at Wexford on Wednesday, Nov. 4, for Henry de Bromhead and Darragh O'Keeffe. Two rivals were taken out because of the ground, and he led all the way to win by 15 lengths from Bossofthebrownies.

If novice chasers like Kappa Jy Pyke's last campaign confuse you, our explainer on what a novice chase is walks through it.

What to watch next

Here's a simple checklist for following his season:

• Today's result: confirm it on Racing Post or Sporting Life. Look at how he jumped as well as the winning margin.
• Tingle Creek 2026: the Grade 1 at Sandown is on Saturday, Dec. 5, the second day of the Tingle Creek Festival (Dec. 4-5). The Mullins team says the plan is the same route as last year, but they'll "take it race by race."
• Jumping: given the Ascot fall and the stumble at Cheltenham, his jumping under pressure is what to watch.
• The Christmas and spring Grade 1s: these decide whether he can defend his Champion Chase title in March 2027.

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