Cheltenham Gold Cup reaction: Adam Houghton on the win of Galopin Des Champs

Just this morning I spoke to the lad leading up Galopin des Champs on the gallops. “That would be the dream,” he said when I put it to him that his pride and joy could be a Gold Cup contender when we return to the Festival in 2023. The Turners prize may have been lost, but the Gold Cup dream is certainly alive and well.

Those were the words I penned from this very chair 12 months ago and Friday was the day when that dream became a reality, erasing the nightmare of Galopin des Champs’ final fence fall in the Turners last year and etching his name into National Hunt racing folklore.

Dreams or nightmares, they all have drama and this was a Gold Cup which had it all, testing speed, stamina and jumping in exactly the way that a Gold Cup should. As winning jockey Paul Townend put it afterwards: “The Gold Cup brings winning to a different level. Cheltenham is very important, but the Gold Cup just has that little bit more spice to it.”

Speed is always the first attribute put to the test and the spice of the Gold Cup quickly proved too much for Stattler and Minella Indo, with both horses barely able to lay up early on and being pulled up having gone little more than a circuit. Noble Yeats was also struggling to hold his pitch from early on the final circuit and the principals were away and gone by the time he finally got going in the straight, ultimately passing the post 15 lengths behind the winner.

Jumping has long been the Achilles' heel of Ahoy Senor and he was a heavy faller six out when giving a bold sight in front, bringing down Sounds Russian and badly hampering the defending champion, A Plus Tard, who still seemed to be travelling within himself at the time.

His rider Rachael Blackmore persevered for only a couple more fences before calling it a day, proving that no matter how much speed, stamina or jumping ability you have, there is still no substitute for good luck when it comes to top-class jumps racing.

Rags-to-riches story Hewick showed for a long way that he is capable of making an impact in that elite company, still in there pitching but looking vulnerable to those on his outside when falling two out. Mercifully, he was soon back up on his feet and his popular connections should hopefully be able to continue living their dream for a while longer yet.

As for the Gold Cup dream, Bravemansgame and Galopin des Champs both had it in their sights as they jumped the last together having quickly put distance between themselves and the rest. It was their speed which had allowed them to do that, but from there it was all about stamina on the lung-bursting climb to the line, the biggest ask of two horses as yet unproven at the trip.

To his credit, Bravemansgame certainly didn’t stop up the hill in the way that many had predicted, but it was all about one horse come the line as Galopin des Champs powered away to win by seven lengths, denying Paul Nicholls a joint-record fifth success in the race and providing Willie Mullins with his third following the back-to-back wins of Al Boum Photo in 2019 and 2020.

And what’s to stop Galopin des Champs giving him a fourth when he returns 12 months from now? I certainly hope to be in this very chair again reporting on the brilliance of a mere seven-year-old who is now unbeaten in six completed starts over fences and rivalling Constitution Hill for the title of most exciting horse in training.

Cheltenham Day Four: Ranked

1. Galopin des Champs sparkles in dramatic Gold Cup

2. Lossiemouth much the best in Triumph

3. Murphy back in the big time with Mares’ win

4. Stay Away Fay too strong in Albert Bartlett

5. Hunter Chase has a Magic 66/1 winner

6. Skelton is County king again

7. Iroko finishes with a flourish in Martin Pipe

It wasn’t the Gold Cup, but don’t underestimate the significance of Lossiemouth’s victory in the Triumph Hurdle for Townend, Mullins and owner Rich Ricci earlier on the card, another case of a nightmare quickly turning into a dream.

For Townend it was an opportunity to right the wrongs of Leopardstown and the Spring Juvenile Hurdle where Lossiemouth had to settle for the runner-up spot having been badly hampered when a backpedalling stablemate fell into her lap on the rail leaving the back straight.

Mullins was unusually outspoken in his criticism of his Townend’s ride in the aftermath. There wasn’t much he could do about the interference, but Mullins did take issue with the choices he made after it, circling the field on the home turn and pushing Lossiemouth right out to the line even though her prospects of reeling in the winner, Gala Marceau, looked remote from some way out.

Mullins clearly felt that Lossiemouth had been given an unnecessarily hard race and that the Triumph Hurdle might have been left behind in Dublin.

As it turned out, those fears proved unfounded. This time Townend took the wide route throughout to avoid any trouble, though Lossiemouth didn’t make his life entirely straightforward. Indeed, it makes perfect sense why Townend had been keen to find cover at Leopardstown as his mount positively tanked through the race with clear daylight ahead of her and had taken her rider to the front before two out whether he wanted to be there or not.

Those exertions possibly told late on as old rival Gala Marceau began to close her down after the last, but there can be no doubt who is the best filly now, the one sporting the pink silks with lime green spots that hadn’t been carried to Grade One success this season before today.

Perhaps that is why emotions ran so hot after that Leopardstown defeat. Mullins may now be well established as the most dominant trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, but it hasn’t always been that way and only with the help of some owners with deep pockets has he got to where he is today, now the proud winner of 94 Festival races.

20 of those wins have come with horses owned by Ricci, including five in the same year in 2016 with Douvan (Arkle), Annie Power (Champion Hurdle), Vroum Vroum Mag (Mares’ Hurdle), Vautour (Ryanair Chase) and Limini (Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle).

For an owner accustomed to that kind of success, there would likely have been some serious head scratching had the 2022/23 campaign gone by without a Grade One winner, but instead it was just sheer delight for Ricci as he returned to the Cheltenham winners’ enclosure for the first time this year.

"To have a winner on a week like this is special," he summed up. "It is our 20th winner here which is special and you don’t take it for granted. When you win one you appreciate it as we have had enough losers."

Colm Murphy was another man not taking Festival success for granted after his Impervious had fought off Allegorie de Vassy – representing the Townend/Mullins/Ricci axis – to win the Mares’ Chase.

Murphy is no stranger to winning big races at this meeting having previously landed the Champion Hurdle with Brave Inca in 2006 and Queen Mother Champion Chase with Big Zeb in 2010, but he’d endured some lean times in between, even relinquishing his licence for a few years having struggled to compete with the powerhouse yards of Mullins, Gordon Elliott and co.

He certainly hasn’t been alone in that regard. Even Paul Nicholls, the 13-times champion trainer in Britain, has struggled for Festival winners in recent years and the drought since Politologue won the Champion Chase in 2020 had surely been giving him plenty of sleepless nights heading into the meeting this year.

Those nightmares should now be a thing of the past following two Festival winners in as many days, latterly with Stay Away Fay in today’s Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle, though Nicholls doesn’t come across like a man who ever sleeps soundly, his mind still racing about what winning opportunities might be out there for his horses and how he can silence his critics.

Nicholls can at least head home a contented man tonight – and a good bit later than some would have had him departing the scene, specifically professional punter Jonny Dineen.

In an episode of the Racing Post’s Upping The Ante back in January, Dineen said of Nicholls’ Cheltenham prospects: "I'd say he will have zero winners at the Festival and if you get one, Paul, you can go home, because you won't be having a second."

Perhaps I should have followed Dineen’s advice myself having had barely a sniff of a winner since an early strike on day one. Either way, I’ll be sure to sleep soundly back in my own bed tonight, dreaming about a spectacular week and a dramatic Gold Cup that will live long in the memory.

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