Jonbon and Energumene are set to meet in Saturday’s BetMGM Clarence House Chase title clash at Ascot, with Nicky Henderson predicting it will be a “big fight”.

Henderson’s Joe Ben hopes to cement his place at the top of the Cheltenham Champion Chase betting stakes by adding to his already impressive Grade 1 win.

He won 16 of 19 career starts with 7 Barrows, with his only defeats coming in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Constitution Hill, at Arkle ) lost to El Fabiolo, as well as losing to Elixir De Nutz in last season’s rearranged race at Cheltenham. When he almost fell over more than once.

This will be the first meeting between Jonbon and the Willie Mullins-trained Energumene, who won the Championship Chase in 2022 and 2023 but missed the entire season last month. Then there was the win in Cork last month.

Henderson and Mullins followed a familiar path in their star showdown, with Constitution Hill and Lossiemouth each lining up for the pair in the Christmas Hurdle, which proved to be one of the highlights of the festive period.

Henderson said: “It could be a big fight and great for the game. It’s like Christmas, senior horses against senior horses. I hope it’s a game people can look forward to and it should turn out to be very Star billing.

“We’re looking forward to it and everything is going on. The crowd really got behind him the other day at Tingle Creek, which is great. He deserves it. He’s been playing at the top tables for a long time, He was the young guy who came in.”

Energumene is no stranger to Clarence House Chase at Ascot, with Willie Mullins bringing him up from Closutton in 2022 when he joined another Seven Burrows superstars, the late Shishkin, went head-to-head.

The race was regarded as one of Ascot’s best in recent years, with Energumene’s results falling short as Shishkin’s famous late sprint proved too much for him.

Revenge awaited at Cheltenham, however, as Energumene easily won his first Championship Chase as Shishkin parked early

Henderson recalled: “It was one of the greatest games of all time and it was billed as that and it did that, which was fantastic. Well, it was fantastic for us, I Don’t think Willie likes it as much as we do! It goes their way and then ends up back our way.

“Energumene had an impressive comeback a few weeks ago, so it looks like we’re going to have a redo, but it’s going to be Jonbon who has to fight him.

“What’s interesting is that Jonbon is very happy there (pace) and they might have a good gallop and it might be an offensive game! That might be brewing for another historic update.”

Old rivals Edward Stone (Alan King) and Boothill (Harry Fry) are also in the mix, while Evan Williams’ Liberty Hunter is an intriguing potential runner .

The nine-year-old finished second in the Grand Annual at Cheltenham and then third in the Grade 1 Novice Company at Aintree, but looked to be the winner when he came back to win comfortably. A progressive horse.

Dan Skelton’s annual award winner “Unexpected Party” completes the six-possibility list.