Galopin Des Champs gained a deserved first victory in the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup with a superlative performance.
Denied a third Gold Cup at Cheltenham last month, the Willie Mullins-trained star was out to prevent an unwanted hat-trick in this race, having been second to Fastorslow for the past two years.
The nine-year-old looked much happier than he did at Cheltenham all the way through this time, jumping for fun at the head of affairs and leading his rivals a merry dance in the hands of Paul Townend.
Monty’s Star was the first to cry enough under Rachael Blackmore and then Joseph O’Brien’s King George winner Banbridge began to struggle.
Spillane’s Tower was still on the bridle at the fourth-last, but just when Mark Walsh would have been hoping to make his move, he failed to pick up, making quite a bad mistake.
With Walsh still seemingly going well enough, Townend kicked on and Spillane’s Tower had to meet the next fence perfectly to have a chance, but failed to do so and the race was over. Galopin Des Champs pinged the last and the 5-6 favourite came home 22 lengths clear, to rapturous applause from the stands.
Mullins said: “He was back to his best. His jumping was fantastic, at his ease, and Paul was just full of confidence on him. To win that race by 22 lengths is awesome.
“Paul said he wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer at any stage, he was going to put them to the sword and he did.
“I thought he was more at home today. I was a little bit worried about the heat and the weather, I’d imagine the other trainers were too.
“You could see from the start he was enjoying himself, there was a spark in him from jumping off.
“He had a look at the road, or gate or something. Paul said to me when he was able to do that, he felt that he was only playing in front.
“When he got to the top of the hill, he said ‘let’s go a little faster and put them under more pressure’. He felt when he had time to do that sort of thing, he was really going at his ease.
“He’s a very good horse, he has to be one of the best chasers we’ve ever had.”
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