Sporting Life
David Ord talks to Henry de Bromhead

Jimmy Mangan on Spillane Tower's bid for glory in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup

By David Ord
Horse Racing
Mon February 16, 2026 · 2h ago

Some trainers will be heading to Cheltenham with teams that number beyond 50.

For Jimmy Mangan the Festival is a one-horse town. But when that horse is Spillane’s Tower, he travels in hope,

The remarkable 70-year-old won the Randox Grand National with Monty’s Pass fully 23 years ago. But now, in the autumn of his career, he’s found one even better.

The string might be down to ten but the eight-year-old has the sort of CV that makes him a big player in chasing’s biggest prize. After all, he was a dual Grade One-winning novice chaser in the spring of 2024 and split Fact To File and Galopin Des Champs in a pulsating finish to last season’s John Durkan.

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This winter he’s been getting back on track, producing his best run since that one when winning the Betfair Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham last month.

It was a big moment for a horse who had briefly looked like he might be losing his way. Not that Mangan is having any of that.

“He came out of the race brilliant, it didn’t knock a shake out of him, really. I never thought his form was tailing off. I’d have to say it was trainer error that I ran him at Naas because we went up to the John Nicholson at Down Royal and that was five hours up and five hours back," he said.

“And I ran him a few days later in the Naas race which I knew if he was in top form he would have won, but he ran flat that day and I have to hold my hands up, I was my fault.

“My faith in him has never wavered. He ran against El Fabiolo in Punchestown on New Year’s Eve and Mark Walsh hopped off and said he’s back to himself again. We were pretty confident going over to Cheltenham for the Cotswold."

Jimmy Mangan after the Cotswold Chase

The trainer was there to guide him back into the winners’ enclosure, resplendent in his woolly hat in the colours of local GAA club, St Catherine's in Ballynoe, a garment with which he has become synonymous. And it will be on again for his stable star's date with destiny next month.

“He’s a very important horse for me. I’ve had good horses that were all handicappers, but this is a Graded horse who can compete at the top level, no problem," Mangan said.

“He has kept improving. He won the two Grade Ones as a novice. To win one you think you might be lucky but you’ll never be that lucky to win two of them, so I was pretty happy that I had a good horse."

And with a temperament to match the ability too.

“He has a lovely character. The lads love him in the yard, he goes out in his own paddock every day. He loves to get out every day, even in this weather (as the rain lashes down in County Carlow), and rolls in the mud. We all have our own different ways, but I think he suits the yard that he’s in. He loves getting out – he’d nearly kick the door down to get out!"

Spillane’s Tower laid down a relatively early Gold Cup marker. Since then Fact To File has catapulted himself to the head of the market when running away with the Irish equivalent in the same JP McManus silks that Mangan’s flagbearer also carries.

“I did watch it closely, actually. In a way I hope that Fact To File isn’t supplemented. He’d be a big problem if he is supplemented because he is a very good horse!” he beams.

“He's beaten us before in the John Durkan but ours wasn’t 100 per cent fit that day. I’m not saying that Willie’s was 100 per cent fit either, but I know the ground had been very tight up to the John Durkan and I couldn’t get the gallops into him that he required.

“That was Jack Kennedy’s first time riding him too and he made Fact To File work hard to beat him. I wouldn’t be afraid of Fact To File.

“Then there’s Galopin Des Champ, what a horse. He’s not getting any younger but he’s far from done, I’d say. But I don’t worry about others. If I go to the big races, I fancy my own and that’s it. They all have chances, they’re not running for the sake of running."

Spillane's Tower on his way to Cotswold Chase success

And Mangan feels Spillane's Tower is bang up there in an open race.

“On what he did the last day he would be. Alright, Venetia’s horse (L’Homme Presse) has been beaten since but maybe he felt the race against Spillane’s Tower and it was a bit soon, but Venetia knows her job better than me!

"I was so happy with the way my horse came up that hill at Cheltenham and Jack was very, very happy with him."

The trainer understandably feels his Spillane's Tower has the right qualities to run a big race next month.

“He has that pull out from the last fence home which is vital,” he says. “If the luck has gone his way during the race and he has a little up his sleeve he won’t be far away when he gets to the finishing line if he's close at the last."

As Mangan speaks, the relentless downpours that seemed to land in Ireland around September and haven't left since, are still falling outside the Lord Bagenal hotel. He’d take it with him to Cheltenham, too, if he could.

“Ground is the big key to him. He will not run on tight ground. He has to have juice in the ground. Number one, he’s a big horse and he jumps an incredible length and I just wouldn’t risk him on tight ground.

“Yielding (good to soft) would be fine. I would be hoping that the weather would stay the way it is," he says looking out of the window.

The jockey bookings might not. If Fact To File runs Mark Walsh will head elsewhere and Gordon Elliott has three entries who could vie for the services of Kennedy. But you sense little keeps Mangan awake at night - and certainly who will be aboard Spillane’s Tower next time won’t.

He laughed: “Luckily enough I have nothing to do with that department – it's completely out of my control. Sometimes I have to check the phone and see who is actually riding! We will need luck. I never blame the jockeys. You have split seconds to make up your mind and if luck goes your way, great, but if it doesn’t there’s nothing you can do about it."

And to add the name Jimmy Mangan to the illustrious list of trainers who have won both a Gold Cup and Grand National?

“I was always hoping I would have a winner at Cheltenham. I had one or two runners and nearly had a winner one day when Oscar Delta unfortunately unseated Jane on the run up the straight. But it was great to have a winner there in the Cotswold.

“In the village I come from the signs are still up saying ‘Home of Monty’s Pass’, so I only hope I can make them put another one up next month."

There are good stories galore at this year's Cheltenham Festival but few, if any, would match Jimmy Mangan winning the biggest race of them all with Spillane's Tower.

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