Leopardstown officials are “content” to keep the €250,000 Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup on day one of next year’s Dublin Racing Festival despite a swipe by Willie Mullins about its position in the weekend programme.
In the wake of Galopin Des Champs completing a Gold Cup hat-trick on Saturday, Mullins said he was “confused” as to why the festival’s most valuable race was not run on the Sunday instead.
“I don’t know if people realise how long it takes to make a horse like this, a three-mile chaser. It is the pinnacle of our game. It takes ages. People go on about hurdlers, like, and I’m a bit confused by the Gold Cup here being on the Saturday and not the feature race on the Sunday. It’s only a hurdle race that’s on tomorrow. You see how long it takes to make these sort of horses – they deserve the top billing,” he said.
The Gold Cup used to be run on day two of the festival until 2022 when the switch took place. That was when the hugely popular mare Honeysuckle was in her pomp, and she completed an Irish Champion Hurdle hat-trick.
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Mullins’ State Man pulled off his own hat-trick in Sunday’s €200,000 feature which was not sponsored and turned into an anticlimax due to Lossiemouth’s dramatic exit at the fourth last flight.
Sunday’s Leopardstown attendance of 16,103 was over 2,000 less than the Saturday when an official figure of 18,297 was returned. That was just a couple of hundred short of capacity and it was highlighted by an ecstatic reception given to Galopin Des Champs after his victory.
The track’s chief executive Tim Husbands said that comments from one of the sport’s most high-profile figures would be examined in the wake of the eighth Dublin Racing Festival. However, when asked about a possible switch back, he said: “I would agree with Willie on a lot of things. I’m not sure I agree with him here. We’ll take that away and we’ll mull over it and see what’s best for racing and what’s best for the festival itself.
“I couldn’t give you a cast-iron (answer) at the moment, but my sense is that we’ll be content with it as it stands. It’s still the Irish Champion Hurdle. It’s still a very significant race within the calendar, and we think it’s strong enough for the day through.”
Husbands also pointed to the Gold Cup’s position on day one as an attempt to ensure the best and freshest going for the meeting’s biggest steeplechase prize.
Ground conditions on Leopardstown’s chase track had been a contentious issue for some years. The 2019 Gold Cup was reduced to just four starters after six non-runners due to going judged to be too quick.
The overall weekend attendance at the festival reached 34,400, down from a 2024 figure of just over 36,000 that was boosted by a 20,000 crowd on day one. Complaints about crowding prompted a 18,500 daily capacity cap this year and a new all-ticket policy. Despite that just over 100 tickets were sold at the gate on Saturday, while up to 300 were purchased at the turnstiles on Sunday.
“I think the message is starting to get through and we always thought it would take three years before we get complete traction on that (all-ticket approach.) It allows us to plan a lot better. I think the new capacity worked well. We’ve had very positive feedback on social media where you get your first feedback as to whether something has worked or not. I think it augurs well for 2026 and I’d very hopeful we’ll reach capacity on those dates next year,” said Husbands.
The Leopardstown CEO had speculated how Saturday’s Ireland-England rugby international might interfere with attendance levels that day, but once again day one proved the bigger draw.
“I’m really heartened by it. Because I did have it at the back of my head that the rugby would be a challenge with 50,000 people in there and a percentage of those that would normally have come racing. It was just 200 short of the capacity we set, and it was a great test of the capacity,” Husbands added.
If there were plenty of British racegoers at the festival the same could not be said of representatives on the track where a handful of visiting runners failed to make much impression.
This weekend’s cross-channel action shapes as the same in reverse with Irish-trained horses giving a swerve to Newbury’s valuable William Hill Hurdle card. The race formerly sponsored by Betfair has 23 entries left in it after Monday’s acceptance stage with none from Ireland.
The top English novice Sir Gino is set to tackle senior opposition on just his second start over fences in the Game Spirit Chase. Trainer Nicky Henderson has also given Sir Gino a Warwick entry on Saturday, but Newbury is the preferred option for the current odds-on Arkle favourite.
One Irish entry at Warwick is Willie Mullins’s Gala Marceau, runner-up to Lossiemouth at Punchestown last May, who has been given a Listed entry in a Mares Hurdle.
In other news Galopin Des Champs was cut to 4/7 by some firms for a Cheltenham Gold Cup hat-trick after last year’s “Blue Riband” runner-up Gerri Colombe was ruled out for the rest of the season by trainer Gordon Elliott following a setback.
“It’s not career-ending or especially serious, but it’s come at the wrong time of the season so we’re going to have to rule him out of the spring festivals,” Elliott said on Monday. “We will concentrate on getting him right for next season when hopefully all roads will lead back to the Gold Cup.”
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