Galopin Des Champs is an even-money chance to follow up last year’s seven-length defeat of Bravemansgame when he goes to post for the Gold Cup at Cheltenham on Friday, but this looks like a stronger race than the 2023 edition and Venetia Williams’s L’Homme Presse (3.30), at around 12-1, has plenty to recommend him as a value alternative to the favourite. Williams has few peers as a trainer of steeplechasers, although the sport’s most prestigious event has eluded her to date. L’Homme Presse, however, looks like Williams’s best chance in the race since the popular Teeton Mill suffered a career-ending injury after setting off as the second-favourite a quarter of a century ago.
The nine-year-old has won both of his starts at Cheltenham, including the Brown Advisory Novice Chase at this meeting two years ago when he hit the line like a horse that can only improve for Friday’s step up to three and a quarter miles.
