The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 9 letter word HUNT FOLLOWERS
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
H
U
N
T
F
O
L
L
O
W
E
R
S
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "excited by the thrill of the chase" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case excited by the thrill of the chase = hunt followers.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.