Galopin Des Champs, the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner last season, is top‑priced at 13-8 for a repeat success at the Festival in March after a hugely impressive return to winning form in the Grade One Savills Chase at Leopardstown on Thursday.
Fastorslow, who had beaten Galopin Des Champs on his two previous starts, was a late absentee from the race as the ground deteriorated, but Willie Mullins’s seven-year-old was still sent off odds-against at 6-4, with Gerri Colombe, the short-head runner-up in the Brown Advisory Novice Chase at last season’s Festival, also well supported at 7-4.
Paul Townend settled Galopin Des Champs close to the lead from the off and the favourite produced several superb jumps to hold his position while going easily, until Townend made his move to pass the front‑running Conflated on the run to the second-last. While the hard‑ridden Conflated was soon back alongside, Townend’s mount was still on the bit and, when his rider gave him his head, he quickly shot clear. Galopin Des Champs was around six lengths clear at the last but had opened a 21-length margin at the line.
“It was a huge performance,” Mullins told Racing TV afterwards. “I was looking at them coming over the third-last and the second-last and thinking, everything is still in the race and they could give him a race. Then Paul just opened him up and he just galloped and I could see Paul looking six strides out for where to jump the last. He just made sure he jumped it and kept galloping up the straight, and he put what appeared to be a field of very good horses to bed in just a few strides.
“When we came here today, we had four in the race in the end and if any one of the four had won, it wouldn’t have surprised me. Now, I think this fellow’s looking a class ahead of those, and they’re good horses.”
Galopin Des Champs could now renew his rivalry with Fastorslow in the Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival in early February, a race he also won last season. “Paul was keen to change the tactics today, he wanted to bounce out and let him enjoy himself over the first few fences,” Mullins said. “I think the horse gave it back to Paul. When I saw him jumping the first the way that he did, I thought, ‘right, game on here today.’ I think we’ll let him enjoy himself from now on, if he can do it the hard way in these conditions and still be galloping at the end.”
Fastorslow – second behind Corach Rambler, the subsequent Grand National winner, in the Ultima Handicap Chase at the Festival last season – is second-favourite for the Gold Cup at around 5-1, while Gerri Colombe is next in the betting at a general 10-1.
Doncaster 11.55 Jaytee 12.30 Therapist 1.05 Ukantango 1.40 Limerick Lace 2.15 Parade Away 2.45 Dreaming Blue 3.20 Tintintin
Kelso 12.10 Great Pepper 12.45 So Many Roads 1.20 Duty Calls 1.55 Young Buster 2.28 Ip Up 3.02 Miss Arabella 3.32 Onestepatatime
Southwell 4.00 Revoquable 4.30 Martin’s Brig 5.00 Leap Day (nb) 5.30 Finn Ironside 6.00 Heathen (nap) 6.30 Rose King 7.00 Water Of Leith 7.30 Rusheen Boy
Mullins was completing a Grade One double on the day after Gaelic Warrior’s success in the Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick, where the only major issue for Paddy Mullins, his rider, was an attempt by his cousin Danny to come up his inside going to the second-last aboard the winner’s stable companion, It Etait Temps.
“My son [Patrick] and my nephew trying to kill one another going around the second-last bend,” Willie Mullins said at Leopardstown. “I don’t know what Patrick said to Danny, but I imagine they wouldn’t be coming home in the same car, anyhow. I suppose Danny was riding his horse and he had to try to go for Grade One glory, but it will make for some fun this evening when we’re disseminating the whole thing.”
