Ben Linfoot sets the scene for a mouthwatering Grade 1 Savills Chase at Leopardstown on Sunday with Galopin Des Champs bidding to win the race for a joint-record third time.
Ambassador, you’re really spoiling us! And not with a box of individually wrapped golden chocolates this time. No, you’re spoiling us with great horse racing. What a festive treat.
Sir Gino, Kitzbuhel, that King George, Romeo Coolio, Solness, Mambonumberfive, Haiti Couleurs' Welsh National and now we have the Savills Chase to unwrap and devour. Mmmmm.
The King George promised to be a humdinger and it delivered. But with Gaelic Warrior and Banbridge and Fact to File making the journey over the Irish Sea surely the Savills Chase has suffered?
The ambassador usually gives with one hand and takes away with the other, after all. That’s just life I’m afraid. But no, not a bit of it.
This is, of course, thanks to the incredible strength in depth amongst Willie Mullins’ staying chasers in Closutton.
For while Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File were packed off in pursuit of Kempton prizemoney, he still had dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs at home ready to make his seasonal reappearance in the Savills, along with four stablemates.
And Galopin is going for a little bit of history, bidding to become only the second horse to win three Savills Chases after Michael Hourigan’s Beef Or Salmon in the early part of the 21st century.
What a horse he was. He never did win a Cheltenham Gold Cup, finishing fourth at best from five goes, but he beat three Gold Cup winners in Best Mate, Kicking King and War Of Attrition, most famously when sinking Henrietta Knight’s horse by seven lengths when this race was known as the Lexus Chase in 2004, complete with Paul Carberry’s contemptuous wave.
A great moment and part of the proof that this race has more than held its own in competition with the King George ever since it was extended to three miles in 1992.
Beef Or Salmon was a big part of establishing it, along with stablemates Deep Bramble and Dorans Pride, while British-trained winners like Best Mate (who had slammed Beef Or Salmon by 13 lengths in 2003), The Listener, Denman, Exotic Dancer, What A Friend, Synchronised, Tidal Bay and Bobs Worth, during a golden run from 2003 to 2013, ensured the visitors kept on coming.
After all, being a left-handed track, Leopardstown and the Savills Chase quite obviously offers something different going the other way round to the King George and that’s why it appealed to the likes of Denman and Bobs Worth, who wouldn’t have been suited to Kempton’s demands.
The visitors have dried up in recent years, but the Gold Cup winners keep on coming.
Well, A Plus Tard and Galopin Des Champs, anyway. And this year Inothewayurthinkin for Gavin Cromwell and JP McManus, the horse who is the most obvious obstacle to Galopin Des Champs’ historic hat-trick bid.
So what of Galopin? One of the greats of the game, with 12 Grade 1 victories to his name, dethroned at Cheltenham in March by Inothewayurthinkin by six lengths despite a wonderful performance in second.
Is he as good as he was now rising 10? Will he be ready for action after 242 days off the track?
Mullins is cautious in his assessment.
“Hopefully they’re putting enough water on the track,” he says in his column on these pages. “It is a course he really likes but he’s having his first run against horses who all have the benefit of having had a start.”
Galopin Des Champs has needed his first run back the last two seasons. But they were in the John Durkan over 2m3f in November. A little setback ruled him out of that assignment this year, but perhaps starting out over a preferred trip will see him nearer his best for his comeback in the Savills.
The Mullins team still aren't firing on all cylinders. But Kitzbuhel won, Narciso Has won, Kargese won, Storm Heart won, Gaelic Warrior ran well. And it would be very Mullins to bring Galopin back with a bang just when your head is turned elsewhere.
But if not Galopin, the new Gold Cup king could be the one.
Inothewayurthinkin was beaten 53 lengths by Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File in the John Durkan, but that should bring him on significantly as he works towards defending his Cheltenham crown.
The big question is, will he have come forward enough to win a Savills? Last year he was over 15 lengths behind Galopin in fifth, but he comes in against him with an extra run under his belt this time.
If not Galopin, and not Inothewayurthinkin, perhaps Fastorslow will be the one.
Martin Brassil’s horse would prefer it if this race was run at Punchestown, but his trainer declined the opportunity to go to right-handed Kempton to come here and he too looks a player if he comes on for his own John Durkan reappearance (third, 23 lengths ahead of Inothewayurthinkin) as expected.
If not Galopin, and not Inothewayurthinkin, and not Fastorslow, then it is wide open.
The Mullins supporting acts may not be also-rans. There’s Champ Kiely who beat Ballyburn in the 3m1f Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown. He looks a threat after reappearing over two miles at Naas where he lost only a short head.
Then there’s Lecky Watson, Grangeclare West and I Am Maximus. All three might be on the Grand National trail, but if the big three don’t win, who knows?
Gordon Elliott runs a trio of horses headed by the returning Gerri Colombe. He’s 0/2 against Galopin, but he can go well fresh and doesn’t have too many miles on the clock for a nine-year-old.
Beyond that we’re in proper outsider territory, but we have to mention Monty’s Star for Henry de Bromhead, a trainer who won this race with the aforementioned A Plus Tard. Fifth in this last year, fourth in the Gold Cup, he’s 50/1, which tells you it’s a deep Savills.
Ambassador, you really are spoiling us. And whether it’s a Galopin hat-trick, a win for the reigning Gold Cup hero or something else that transpires, the Savills looks another great advert for racing in a week where the sport has done all the talking.
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