Galopin Des Champs joins Gold Cup greats

Galopin Des Champs became only the eighth horse in the 100 years of the Boodles Gold Cup to win jump racing’s blue riband event more than once after he conquered stamina-sapping conditions here yesterday.

If the centenary race deserved a brilliant winner, it got one. Still only eight, the outstanding Frenchbred gelding could come back next year and gain entry into an even more elite group of greats, Cottage Rake, Arkle and Best Mate, who all won the Gold Cup three times.

Anyone on a sugar- free diet would be well advised to stay clear of Willie Mullins’s celebration cake this month but a fourth Gold Cup for the trainer, a fourth for jockey

Paul Townend and a second for Audrey Turley’s outstanding Galopin Des Champs put a final layer of icing on their week.

Earlier in the day, Townend, who is now equal with the legendary Pat Taaffe as the race’s most successful rider, had won the County Hurdle on Absurde, coming from last off the final bend to weave his way to the front three-quarters of the way up the hill to win Mullins’s vote for ride of the week.

But the genius of this Gold Cupwinning ride for Mullins’s horse was its simplicity; never worse than third behind pace-setting The Real Whacker, plenty of daylight, jumping superbly and always in control of the outcome in what was, even for the winner, a real slog in probably the softest ground the race has been run on this century.

A mile out, the race’s main drama occurred when one of Galopin Des Champs’s principal rivals, Fastorslow, the only horse to have beaten him since last year’s Gold Cup, belted the fence and unseated JJ Slevin. From then on, Fastorslow’s only threat was to make a nuisance of himself running loose. In the end, he was probably more of a help than a hindrance as he escorted Galopin Des Champs up the run-in.

Though L’Homme Presse led them into the home straight and the National winner Corach Rambler was creeping into it, Townend was poised and it was Gerri Colombe who looked the biggest threat to his superiority. The runner- up, who had been off the bridle from the top of the hill, might have matched the winner for resolution and never gave up, but he never quite had the legs of him.

Corach Rambler ran a terrific Grand National trial in third, with L’Homme Presse a game fourth, Bravemansgame fifth and Jungle Boogie sixth and last.

Townend, leading jockey of the

week, was too diplomatic to put Galopin Des Champs above Al Boum Photo, his and Mullins’s other two- time winner, even though, to the neutral observer, this one looks better by some margin. But the jockey did single out this Gold Cup as a stand-out.

“It was different to the other three, to be honest,” he said. “I can’t really believe it, I’m a bit lost for words. He pulled out every stop – we went for reserves in that last furlong that only the really good ones have. He was brave the whole way round for me.

“The loose one was interfering with us a bit and it was messy, but what he found up the straight from the back of the last – you see so many horses get to the last and don’t get up the hill. He got up there last year but that was a different type of ride.”

Mullins shipped 80 horses across the Irish Sea this week. Galopin Des Champ was the best of them when they set off and he returns even better, and the only horse to defend a major title at this year’s Festival.

“I think he just put himself in the ‘superstar’ category, to what he did, the way he did it,” Mullins said. “Paul was just so positive on him. We’ll have to think about coming back next year and trying for a third win. He has the ability, he just has to stay sound.”

In a scarlet coat, Turley stood out among a jubilant gang of friends and family in the paddock. “I can’t believe it,” she exclaimed. “I know he was favourite but you never know. To win the centenary Gold Cup is very special, I’m humbled to be here and part of the magnificent team of Willie, Paul and Galopin.

“This horse is so special to us. We love him. He’s so kind and so lovely when we go and see him in his stable. I just want to snuggle and cuddle him all day.”

His stable lad, Adam Connelly, 24, went to Mullins for a summer holiday six years ago and never left. It does not look like he will be leaving anytime soon while he has Galopin Des Champs in his care. “It was more pressure a second time because we were the ones being shot at,” he said. “I didn’t sleep last night. I put it down to the rain lashing on the roof. I won’t be sleeping tonight either.”