Our man at the track Adam Houghton picks out three points of interest from a dramatic day three at the Cheltenham Festival.
Cheltenham Festival 2022 | Day Three Reports
Turners turmoil for Galopin des Champs fans
Where do you start after a race like the Turners Novices’ Chase?
Well, my afternoon began at the pre-parade ring, eager to get a first glimpse of Bob Olinger following David Cleary’s glowing comments in the column he penned for Sporting Life last week.
Unlike David, I’m not planning on making any grand gestures towards Bob Olinger anytime soon, but it was certainly hard not to be taken with the presence of National Hunt racing’s would-be superstar when he swaggered into view.
Galopin des Champs was there too, of course, as dark as Bob Olinger is tall and handsome, the pair accompanied by only two other runners to leave those still engaged in the small fields debate foaming at the mouth.
That argument can wait for another day, however, because the race itself was all about one horse, or at least 95% of it was, and it wasn’t the one with the film star good looks who passed the post first.
Until falling at the final fence, Galopin des Champs looked quite simply in a different league to Bob Olinger, once again impressing with his exuberant jumping – something which couldn’t be said for Bob Olinger – but then paying the price for that very exuberance when crumpling on landing after another extravagant leap at the last.
At the time of his departure Galopin des Champs was so far clear of Bob Olinger – an imperious winner of the Ballymore at last year’s Festival and still unbeaten over fences (albeit barely), lest we forget – that he must be considered a top-class novice chaser with the world at his feet.
Happily, Galopin des Champs was immediately back on said feet after his heavy fall, looking none the worse and with his future hopefully still ahead of him.
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 Galopin des Champs 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.
Unlimited Replays
of all UK and Irish races with our Race Replays
Discover Sporting Life Plus Benefits
Same old story for Allaho in the Ryanair
Or at least I thought Galopin des Champs could potentially be Gold Cup bound in 2023.
That was until Willie Mullins made the point after the Turners that the Queen Mother Champion Chase could be the chosen destination for his star novice next season – anybody up for an early game of Willie Mullins bingo?
One thing which is absolutely certain is that Mullins doesn’t need another Ryanair horse, with all roads reportedly leading back there in 2023 for Allaho after he emulated Alberta’s Run by winning the race for the second year in succession.
It’s fair to say that Allaho is simply tailormade for the test that the Ryanair provides, possessing the speed to take his rivals out of their comfort zone from a long way out and the stamina to keep going when others have cried enough.
The going was soft this year compared to the quicker surface he encountered in 2021, and there was a crowd present this time to witness his brilliance, but there was little else different about Allaho’s second Ryanair victory to his first.
Always travelling strongly at the head of affairs and barely missing a beat with his jumping, Allaho briefly gave his rivals the opportunity to close within a few lengths on the home turn, but any hope they had of stealing his crown was quickly extinguished.
Allaho was fully 14 lengths clear of his closest pursuer at the line, even extending his margin of superiority compared to 12 months earlier.
The stick the Ryanair is often beaten with is that it takes away from the fields for the Champion Chase and the Gold Cup and, in fairness, it would certainly add plenty of intrigue if a peak-form Allaho was allowed to take his chance in either of those races.
Will it ever happen? No, probably not given that Mullins is a creature of habit and he likes winning races at the Cheltenham Festival, a goal he has now reached on no fewer than 83 occasions.
It’s easy to see Allaho going off at prohibitive odds again in next year’s Ryanair and few who enjoy watching top-class sport will complain when he produces performances like those we’ve seen from him in 2021 and 2022.
There will always be those like myself who would prefer to see him more adventurously campaigned, though, at least in the autumn and winters months, if not at Cheltenham.
How about the thought of Allaho running in the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day? Like the lad leading up Galopin des Champs, we can all dream.
Flooring Porter the reformed character
The decision to make the Stayers’ Hurdle the feature race on the third and penultimate day of the newly-expanded Cheltenham Festival in 2005 wasn’t met with universal approval.
For a while it had the reputation of being the ‘Cinderella’ event out of the four major championship races staged at the Festival, suddenly being plucked from relative obscurity to a position of great significance.
Forget Cinderella, however, the cast for this year’s Stayers’ Hurdle was more like something out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, such was the assortment of characters on display.
There was certainly no denying the talent possessed by the market principals, the multiple Grade One winner Klassical Dream and defending champion Flooring Porter, but there were doubts about what might be going through the head of either horse at any given time.
The start was one of the big talking points going into this year’s race, particularly after what happened at Leopardstown over Christmas when Klassical Dream poached a lead of a couple of lengths over Flooring Porter and never gave it back.
Flooring Porter’s jockey Danny Mullins wasn’t going to let that happen a second time today and Paul Townend, rider of Klassical Dream, had no intention of trying to make it happen either after his mount had played up at the start, eventually settling him at the rear of the 10-strong field.
The outcome was that Flooring Porter had an uncontested lead and, just like 12 months earlier, Mullins didn’t need a second invitation to seize the race by the scruff of the neck.
Dictating the pace to suit, Flooring Porter was never headed and kept going well to land the spoils by two and three quarter lengths, in the process emulating Baracouda, Inglis Drever and Big Buck’s as he became the fourth multiple winner of the Stayers’ Hurdle this century.
Flooring Porter may have that in common with the three horses previously mentioned, but his style of racing couldn’t be more different. Whereas they had all the tendency to race a bit behind the bridle, causing their supporters plenty of nervous moments, Flooring Porter is a smooth-travelling sort who, in truth, looked in control of the race at every stage today.
Whether Flooring Porter can keep control of his mind going forward is the big question – he once threw away victory in a handicap hurdle at Gowran Park by wandering markedly off a true line – but he has come a long way in every sense in the intervening period.
There was only the briefest sign of any wayward tendencies today as he revisited his trick from 12 months earlier, spotting the photographers upon landing after the last and threatening to cock his jaw and hang left.
Flooring Porter’s last flight shenanigans were nothing compared to what we had witnessed earlier in the afternoon, though, and unlike Galopin des Champs, he was able to bask in the glory of a rapturous reception from his travelling fans, another memorable moment on a memorable St Patrick’s Day at Cheltenham.
