Galopin Des Champs wins Cheltenham Gold Cup for Willie Mullins
Now, that’s what I call a horse race, that’s what I call a champion steeplechase and that’s what I call a truly inspired ride.
In years to come, when people read the basic facts that Galopin Des Champs, the 7-5 favorite trained by Willie Mullins, won the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup with Paul Townend on board, they probably won’t appreciate how special this victory was. .
On Tuesday we had seen the brilliant Constitution Hill land the Champion Hurdle without breaking a sweat. It was a display mixed with elegance.
Friday was different. Galopin Des Champs continued to be exemplary, but this was a race where heart and guts mattered so much. It was a brutal race.
Galopin Des Champs’s rivals knew their best chance to beat him was by testing his untested stamina on the Gold Cup three and a quarter mile ride. At any other distance, the opposing jockeys knew he would beat them. It was the angle they had to exploit and boy did they try.
Paul Townend celebrated at the end of the race that saw him claim his third Gold Cup
Townend, a generally calm and collected figure, celebrated wildly aboard Galopin Des Champs
Going into the final stretch neck-and-neck with Bravemansgame, Galopin Des Champs displayed an irresistible turn of foot to go on to deliver a third Gold Cup triumph for owner Willie Mullins.
Townend was under orders from Mullins to be patient, but those pre-race instructions must have seemed irrelevant when just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong for the jockey on the first circuit.
He kept his cool to gradually push back his struggling rivals, catching runner-up Bravemansgame over the last of 22 hurdles and then pulling away from him on the climb to the line.
The trip earned Townend a third Gold Cup win; he also had success in the Mullins-trained Al Boum Photo in 2019 and 2020, and only Pat Taaffe, whose four wins include three at the legendary Arkle in the 1960s, has ridden more.
The trip also earned Townend praise from a notable figure, 20-time champion jockey and two-time Gold Cup winner Sir Anthony McCoy.
He told ITV viewers: ‘That’s as brilliant a ride as I’ve ever seen in any horse race. Talk about riding with a bottle. Oh Lord. Talk about pleasure, privilege and pressure, oh my gosh. He managed it better than anyone I’ve ever seen.
Townend shrugged off the praise, preferring to give credit to his mount. “It was difficult for me,” said the jockey. “I couldn’t get a clean ride early and he started jumping up in the air a little bit.
“But when I had a bit of space, he got his rhythm back and was very, very brave. She pulled me out of a fair hole, to be honest.
“I was way further back than I wanted to be, but it was just the ride I had to give it.”
Many had questioned whether Mullins was doing the right thing by putting his gelding through Friday’s wear test instead of a shorter race, and the trainer admitted to feeling the heat.
“It was because we had a lot of confidence in the horse and we thought we had a Gold Cup horse,” said Mullins, 66, whose Festival win tally now stands at 94.
“But a lot of people said he has too much speed and no stamina. What stands out was the pressure I put myself under.
‘That came from the fact that we didn’t agree with everyone who said he wouldn’t stay. It would have been different if he had shot 10-1 but he was the favorite.
I guess people supported him believing that I was right. I was surprised to get to the penultimate fence how much I started to feel it. But then I saw Paul in the bridle again and I thought: ‘This could happen’. He surprised me how much it meant to me.
Ahoy Señor, trained by Lucinda Russell, applied the pressure of the race early on. The pace was relentless and the good horses took turns hoisting the white flag behind him.
First to surrender was Irish Gold Cup runner-up Stattler who was stopped before the 11th fence, then 2021 winner Minella Indo was stopped with a circuit to go.
Last year’s A Plus Tard winner never threatened and was stopped before the penultimate fence.
By then Ahoy Señor, who still seemed to be traveling well, fell into the 17th fence and took down Sounds Russian. Racing to penultimate, five horses were still in it until Hewick suffered a crashing fall.
Mullins seemed delighted after the conclusion of the Gold Cup, claiming his third such triumph.
Combined, with Sam Ewing replacing the ‘sore’ Davy Russell, he was left in third with last year’s Grand National winner Noble Yeats taking fourth.
What Mullins liked best about the Galopin Des Champs effort was that it took Townend forever to get it up. He still had a lot left in the tank.
At seven years old, he has his best years ahead of him. That is great news for the sport and if both horses stay fit, we could have a very successful clash between Galopin Des Champs and Constitution Hill in the 2025 Gold Cup.
That would be a race worth going a long way to watch.