Shloer Chase
Listed, Cheltenham 14:55
£100,000 guaranteed,
5yo plus,3w§1s
2m 35yds, Class 1  
Friday 14th November 2025

1 L'Eau Du Sud 10/3
2 Jonbon 5/6F
3 Matata 9/1
6 ran NR: Brookie Distances: 15l, 2¼l, 14l
Time: 4m 6.63s (slow by 14.63s)

Dan Skelton’s L’Eau Du Sud turned the race into something close to a solo exhibition, stretching further and further away from the hat-trick-chasing Jonbon in conditions that made Cheltenham feel more like a wind tunnel than a racecourse.

With the rain driving sideways and no quarter given up front, Matata, Jonbon and L’Eau Du Sud locked horns from flagfall, the pace unrelenting and the pressure immediate. It might ordinarily have invited a closer to pick up the pieces, but Libberty Hunter departed early and Edwardstone never threatened to lay a glove on them.

Harry Skelton, aboard the eventual 100-30 winner, was intent on keeping the screw turned, sliding up alongside as if to underline just how comfortably his partner was travelling. Jonbon, by contrast, began to show the strain with a few laboured leaps that left him scrambling for rhythm.

Sweeping down the hill, Skelton even allowed himself a lingering glance over his shoulder — though in the murk he was so far clear he may not have spotted Jonbon at all. Turning for home, L’Eau Du Sud eased past Matata and was able to coast up the run-in. JJ Slevin performed acrobatics to stay in the plate after Matata’s blunder at the last, but the error cost second place, leaving Jonbon to preserve his unblemished top-two record, albeit 15 lengths behind.

Dan Skelton said: “Maybe the conditions have made him look really good today, but we got him ready for today as we needed to know where he stands. Whether he got beat by Jonbon or not we were hopeful today was a career best, and it was.

“I was hoping we could take the step forward, but you can never be sure. Looking at today he’s clearly improved.

“I’m not very proud of myself for running at Warwick in the Kingmaker before the Arkle as it took a lot out of him and that’s why he wasn’t at his best at Cheltenham. I didn’t want to say it at the time as it would have sounded like an excuse, but that’s in the past and hopefully we can make it up now.

“I’m not afraid of running novices and they have to go out and run to learn what to do. Maybe those defeats in the spring have helped turn him into the man he has become today and of course there are positives to it all.

“We’ll look forward to the future now with a real good two-miler now. He’ll go straight to the Tingle Creek and maybe after last year straight to the Champion Chase. I wouldn’t leave the door completely shut on the Clarence House at Ascot, but he’s had a harder race than it looked today because that ground is pretty hard work.”

He added: “It was probably hard to foresee that and I thought we could win but we needed an under-performance from Jonbon and I think that’s what we saw, he didn’t travel like him. He’s not getting any younger and I think you’ll see a different Jonbon at Sandown now he’s blown the cobwebs away.

“Last year he had two runs before he went to Sandown and this year he will only have one but let’s see.”

Shloer Chase
£100,000 guaranteed, 5yo plus, 2m 35yds, Class 1
6 ran
Going: Soft

POS. DIST HORSE AGE WGT TRAINER JOCKEY SP
1    L'Eau du Sud 7 11-7 Dan Skelton Harry Skelton 100/30
2 15 Jonbon 9 11-10 Nicky Henderson Nico de Boinville 5/6F
3 2¼ Matata 7 11-4 Nigel & Willy Twiston-Davies J J Slevin 9/1
4 14 Edwardstone 11 11-4 Alan King Tom Cannon 10/1
PU Haddex Des Obeaux 8 11-4 Donald McCain Brian Hughes 40/1
UR Libberty Hunter 9 11-4 Evan Williams Harry Cobden 15/2
NR 3 Brookie 8 11-4 Anthony Honeyball NON RUNNER

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