ARCHIVE: Glorious Galopin Des Champs joins the greats as he wins back-to-back Cheltenham Gold Cups in supreme style

This race report of the 2024 Cheltenham Gold Cup was published on March 15, 2024, and has been republished to mark the death of the sensational winner Galopin Des Champs, who galloped into the history books with his second consecutive victory in jump racing's most prestigious prize.

• Galopin Des Champs dies aged ten just five days after retirement announced 

At the end of a gruelling Gold Cup, reigning champion Galopin Des Champs joined an exclusive club of equine icons from yesteryear when retaining his crown with a brave performance befitting the 100th anniversary of jump racing's pinnacle event.

Having positioned himself just behind the pacesetters, Paul Townend brought the Audrey and Greg Turley-owned eight-year-old with a sweeping challenge around the home turn. 

L'Homme Presse, who led when The Real Whacker wilted from four out, took the bend in front on the inside, but it was the riderless Fastorslow, who had unseated JJ Slevin seven fences out when tracking the favourite, who would prove the biggest complicating factor in the quest to seize Cheltenham Festival immortality. 

Luckily for Townend and Galopin Des Champs's legions of fans, Fastorslow didn't go left or right. He took the second-last in front sandwiched between Galopin Des Champs and L'Homme Presse, and then held his line at the last. Galopin Des Champs was spring-heeled in his slipstream as he powered up that final, punishing climb to his destiny. 

With the ground heavy in places, just the second time since Desert Orchid's 1989 triumph 35 years ago that the word appeared in an official Gold Cup going description, Townend had to keep his partner together as Gerri Colombe kept coming behind. 

However, at the end of a remorseless display they had three and a half lengths to spare, with a further nine and a half lengths back to the Grand National winner Corach Rambler. L'Homme Presse kept on to be fourth ahead of Bravemansgame.  

The victory means Mullins, who was taking his haul for the week to nine, is the first trainer to win two Gold Cups with different horses. His mother Maureen died only last month so it was a poignant moment. "I'd love to have had her and my father here, just for the week, never mind winning the Gold Cup. But it's not to be," he said.

Of Galopin Des Champs, he added fairly definitively: "I think he put himself in the superstar category to do what he did the way he did it. And Paul was just so positive on him. The loose horse was the only concern. He hit one fence early on but after that it was very easy. Paul was in the position he wanted to be in and he just seemed to be travelling easily all the time."

The winning shot: Galopin Des Champs and Paul Townend are mobbed after the Gold CupCredit: Patrick McCann

Punchestown usually follows Cheltenham for the majority of the Mullins horses, but he cast some doubt over whether Galopin Des Champs would go there this year. He was beaten 12 months ago and thoughts are now inevitably turning to a third Gold Cup.

In the Boodles-sponsored race's storied history, just eight other horses had multiple wins to their name. The most recent to do the double was his former stablemate Al Boum Photo, who is the only surviving two-time hero. Having been the subject of heavy market support all day, Galopin Des Champs's SP of 10-11 means he is the first Gold Cup winner since Best Mate to return odds-on.

"He is doing everything right," Mullins said. "You don't dream of these things. We'll come back next year and try and win a third one if we can. He has the ability to do it, he just has to stay sound."

Audrey Turley, owner of Galopin Des Champs, jockey Paul Townend, groom Adam Connolly and trainer Willie Mullins after Galopin Des Champs wins the Gold Cup againCredit: Michael Steele (racingpost.com/photos)

Of his epic festival, which saw him crowned leading trainer for an 11th time, he said: "It's been an absolutely fantastic week. We couldn't believe last Saturday morning in our office how well everything was going. We were wondering was it eerily too good, everything was just going according to plan and the horses were so healthy. I felt we could have a blitz of a week, or else it would be a blowout, but it's a blitz. We're just so happy."

Following his 2021 win in the conditional jockeys' race, this was a third festival victory for Galopin Des Champs, who also capitulated dramatically with the 2022 Turners Novices' Chase at his mercy. 

"We can’t believe it," Audrey Turley beamed. "To win here on the 100th anniversary is special. I’m so thrilled to be part of this magnificent team at Closutton."

For Townend, it was also a historic moment. The 33-year-old demonstrated all his trademark calm despite the weight of expectation, and his fourth win means he joins Pat Taaffe as the most successful rider in the history of the race

"It's surreal to be honest," he said. "People go a lifetime without finding one, and I've found two who have won it twice. It's unbelievable, it just doesn't happen. It feels different to all of the others, I can't really believe it." 

Reflecting on his mount and the run through the race, he added: "He pulled out every stop. We went for reserves in the last furlong that only the really good ones have. He was brave the whole way around for me. 

Willie Mullins and Paul Townend pose with the Gold CupCredit: Michael Steele

"The loose one caused a bit of trouble, it was messy, but what he found up the straight from the back of the last . . . So many horses don't get up the hill. He got up there last year but it was a different type of ride. We had conserved everything but we did it the hard way this year."

With the Grade 1 programme in Ireland undergoing revisions in an effort to improve competition, Mullins' willingness to unleash a horse of Galopin Des Champs' calibre as early as November for a John Durkan Chase that was brought forward has meant he has now run four times this season. At the end of week when calls for change have resounded loudly through a Cotswolds beset by poor attendances and a splurge of short-priced winners, it might be food for thought.

"With the way the programme has fallen at home now, Willie has supported it and it felt right for him," Townend said of the issue. "Willie doesn't usually change things but he did for this lad."

Mullins touched on the same point. Possibly a little mischievously, he hasn't missed a chance in recent months to emphasise that the best horses should be running regularly, and he reiterated as much here.

Galopin Des Champs has now won the Irish Gold Cup and Cheltenham Gold Cup twice in successive yearsCredit: Edward Whitaker

"Good horses deserve to run in good races and we need to see them on the track, and that's why I like running them," he said. "If they're beaten, it's not the end of the world – they're still good horses." 

In fairness to the rest of the world, it helps when you have the depth of resources Mullins now has at his disposal. Galopin Des Champs, for example, was cut to 5-2 from 7-2 for the 2025 Gold Cup. Next on the list is Fact To File at 4-1, another of his precocious Closutton stablemates, so the biggest threat to the hat-trick bid might yet come from within. That's kind of the new normal.

More on Galopin Des Champs:

Galopin Des Champs dies aged ten just five days after retirement announced 

'This is the best chaser I've trained' - Galopin Des Champs' glittering career in quotes 

'They all lined up to have a go at him and he left them for dead' - Galopin Des Champs owners Greg and Audrey Turley reflect on 'dream of a lifetime' 

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