'He's an iron horse' - brilliant Gaelic Warrior puts Fact To File in his place to claim emphatic Gold Cup success

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Few of us missed the opportunity to bill it as a match on the 40th anniversary of what many consider the match and for a short while it looked like it might live up to that billing, but the reality proved much less romantic.

Paul Townend indulged in a bit of rope-a-dope on Gaelic Warrior when he loomed up alongside Fact To File after the fourth-last fence in the Ladbrokes Gold Cup. As is his wont, he lured us into thinking they were about to trade blows all the way home.

David Jennings: Gaelic Warrior blows everyone away with a 26-length win in Punchestown Gold Cup - leading to a Ruby Walsh F-bomb

However, similar to what happened when he gave this enormously impressive physical specimen an inch of rein turning for home in the Cheltenham Gold Cup last month, he had a haymaker of a punch in his locker.

This time, when Townend condescended to stop toying with Fact To File and Mark Walsh from the back of three out, the response again was simply emphatic. The knockout blow was borne out to the tune of 26 lengths, an utterly resounding riposte to the notion that there was any actual merit to a debate over who is the best staying chaser around.

"He's an iron horse to be honest," said Townend. "It's so hard to dance all the dances he has and put up the performances he has and produce it again today."

Townend has ridden an array of the best jumps horses to grace the track in recent times. Clearly, though, he is taken by the flagrant power of Gaelic Warrior.

"To sit on him, the shoulders he has in front of you, he is a tank of a horse," he said of the 5-6 favourite. "The main thing is not to get in a row with him because there will only be one winner. He is a tank, and a very talented tank at that."

Buck House and Dawn Run kept it interesting all the way up the straight all those years ago, but Gaelic Warrior coasted down over the final two fences. He was in a league of his own.

In stark contrast to when they touched gloves here in the John Durkan, Fact To File cut out the running as Townend decided to get cover on Gaelic Warrior after he found him a touch wound up on the way to the start. Different method, same result.

Back in November, Gaelic Warrior only had a neck to spare, but the manner of this deeply impressive performance spoke more definitively of his superiority.

While he was narrowly beaten in the King George and when Fact To File had his measure in the Irish Gold Cup, the once mercurial talent has now posted back-to-back displays that leave little doubt the baton of greatness has been passed in Closutton. Galopin Des Champs, whose 22-length victory here in 2025 proved to be his last win, failed to follow either of his Cheltenham Gold Cup victories with success here.

In doing so, Gaelic Warrior became the first horse to manage that distinction since Sizing John in 2017. Susannah and Rich Ricci's eight-year-old has stamped his unadulterated class all over the division.

Gaelic Warrior: star of the show on day two

Gaelic Warrior saunters clear in the Punchestown Gold CupCredit: Patrick McCann

"He was super," added Townend, who was winning the Grade 1 for a third time. "He went to the start fairly full of himself and I was a little bit worried because, in Cheltenham, he relaxed going down, whereas today he was tanking with me, so I put a little bit more emphasis on settling him today."

With Inothewayurthinkin failing to build on his more encouraging turn at Cheltenham, Mullins hoovered up the first three places, Grangeclare West keeping on for third, another 28 lengths back. It was the soon-to-be 20-time champion trainer's eighth win in the race.

"The two of them turning up was great and it was great of JP [McManus] to let Fact To File run and have his crack," said Mullins.

"It made for a memorable day's racing. Over that trip Gaelic Warrior seems to have the measure of Fact To File. Maybe over shorter, it might be different, but there we are.

"Gaelic Warrior started off here in November and did Kempton, the DRF, Cheltenham and here. That's always my philosophy. If you have the horses and the tracks and sponsors put up nice prize-money, I think you should go for it."

It's a policy that is rewarding him rather spectacularly. Long may it endure.

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