Galopin Des Champs blitzes Leopardstown field to lay down Gold Cup marker for jubilant Willie Mullins

Paul Townend is a master of understatement, but on this occasion his eyes and beaming smile told his true feelings.

“That was good, wasn’t it?” asked Ireland’s leading rider as he returned to the winners’ enclosure here in Leopardstown. Soon he would be hit by a wall of sound from the crowd, standing thirty feet deep trying to catch a glimpse of Galopin Des Champs.

This was better than good. Christmas was great for racing, thanks to the performances of Constitution Hill, Sir Gino and Townend’s King George winner Banbridge, but this was a new highlight, a great, brutal display of galloping and point jumping.

Such was the quality of Galopin Des Champs’ display in the Grade One Savills Chase that his trainer Willie Mullins felt compelled to label it the best display in a body of work that, remember, includes the last two renewals of the Cheltenham Gold Cup includes. .

Mullins talks in hushed tones and would not be one to say something to get a cheap headline. He wouldn’t necessarily be one to show emotion in public either, but as the cheering continued you could see how much this all meant to him.

“Even I was like, ‘Wow,’ which I don’t really do that often,” Mullins said. “It was fantastic, especially considering the caliber of horse behind him.

Trainer Willie Mullins (left) called the victory ‘big’ and described the gelding as a saint

It’s another victory for jockey Paul Townend, just 48 hours after his victory aboard Banbridge

‘That was huge. You couldn’t have planned the race better for Fact To File as he was ahead the whole way. But Galopin simply left him behind. He went over the last one and just sprinted away. For me, he was always the one. I would never abandon him. He’s just the real deal, isn’t he?

‘He has a lovely temperament; he has size and scope. He has everything you want. He’s a saint.’

A saint who breaks the hearts of those who try to keep up with him. As soon as the white flag was raised at 2:36 p.m., Galopin began galloping, at one point clocking 50 km/h and counting the obstacles in front of him metronomically.

Waiting in the wings, anchored in fourth place, was Fact To File, who also saddled Mullins. That seven-year-old had beaten Galopin Des Champs at Punchestown over two and a half miles in the John Durkan Chase five weeks ago, and many expected him to repeat the trick.

Fact To File, dressed in the green and gold silks of JP McManus, is talented and won at the Cheltenham Festival last March, but his stablemate is a different proposition from three miles away in Leopardstown, on the outskirts of Dublin, and how that works. showed.

Every time Townend increased the pace slightly, his rivals behind began pushing with their arms in an attempt to stay in the chase. Finally, as the race reached the final three furlongs, the afterburners of Galopin Des Champs came into action as the lungs of his pursuers began to burn.

Take I Am Maximus, the reigning winner of the Randox Grand National – he was pulled over long before the end of the stage, shocked by the pace. Likewise, horses of the talent of Grangeclare West, Conflated and Minella Cocooner never took the race into account. Galopin Des Champs were given a 5-6 lead when Townend, a Formula 1 enthusiast, put his foot down around the home corner, the roof going up with a visceral sound you only hear when a large crowd knows there is a gamble is underway. be landed.

Mark Walsh, the Fact To File jockey, complained that his partner had been too exuberant too early, but the simple fact was that he was faced with an impossible task. Galopin Des Champs is one of the greats of the modern era and this was his pinnacle.

“I would have been shocked if he had been beaten,” said Townend, who enjoyed another major race victory just 48 hours after his victory aboard Banbridge in the King George VI Chase.

‘His work at home had been brilliant. Fact To File is an honest machine, but it would have to be something incredible to beat our boy.

“He’s a terrier, he put his head down and showed his will to win on the straight. There aren’t that many as good as him, are they?’

The schedule for Galopin Des Champs, who finished seven and a half lengths above the field, is now to return to Leopardstown for the Irish Gold Cup in February before heading to Cheltenham in March to attempt a Gold hat-trick. Cup wins, for which bookmakers have made him the odds-on favorite.

Should the eight-year-old be successful, he would place himself in the realm of Arkle and Best Mate, the last horse to conquer Cheltenham three years in a row.

No wonder Mullins and Townend are so dear to him.