Why Brighton chairman Tony Bloom is already celebrating 'brilliant' victory ahead of Tottenham

Albion owner Tony Bloom said he was 'so proud' as his race horse Energumene triumphed in the day’s big race at Cheltenham Festival.

Energumene, ridden by Paul Townend, crossed the line ahead of Shishkin in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.

"It was brilliant," Bloom said, speaking to the BBC. "In the end it was easy but I'm sure there will be many great races between us and Shishkin over the years.

"The rain has really helped us and when Shishkin and Chacun Pour Soi fell it was ours to lose. Great credit to Paul Townend and Willie Mullins."

It was a sweet moment for Bloom as Shishkin had previously got the better of his charge in their first meeting in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot. winning by a length.

This time however Energumene produced a smooth ride from start to finish. Funambule Sivola finished a distant second with Envoi Allen a considerable way back in third.

Willie Mullins – winning the race for the first time – said: “We just thought we got the tactics completely wrong at Ascot so the plan today was to follow Shishkin.

“The problem Paul then had was you could see after two fences Shishkin wasn’t handling the ground so it then became a case of when was Paul going to forget about Shishkin and ride the race. Nico was wise in pulling Shishkin up, you could clearly see he hated the ground.

“I was very disappointed to see Chacun Pour Soi go out of the race when he did. I was gutted for Patrick (Mullins) because he appeared to be loving it. He might have given him a race.

“At every stage, though, Energumene seemed to be cantering and these extreme conditions suit him.

“He probably has more speed than we thought, at Ascot we felt after the race we should have waited rather than make all.

“That was the only plan I could come up with to turn the tables on Shishkin.

“It was a bit of an anti-climax for the neutrals but it was more nerve-wracking for me because you could see he was travelling the whole way.”

He added: “It’s great to finally win it, it’s great for Paul and great for Tony Bloom (owner). When the rain came he began to get very confident.”