All four runners in Wednesday’s Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup are course winners, and yet despite that, for Galopin Des Champs it might feel like an “away game”.
For the last two years Galopin has pitched up for the €300,000 feature as reigning Cheltenham Gold Cup champion and twice has had to settle for the runner-up spot to Fastorslow.
That rival is absent this time, and the horse described by Ruby Walsh as the best Irish steeplechaser since Arkle lost his Blue Riband title more than six weeks ago. What remains the case is general agreement that Punchestown isn’t really his bag.
It’s some claim for a former Durkan winner, but just two victories in six starts here is a stat that supporters of Spillane’s Tower, Banbridge and Monty’s Star will be all over come 5.30pm.
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So too will the ground element. On a soft surface there have been times during Galopin Des Champs’s career when he’s seemed all but unbeatable. His superb pair of Grade One successes at Leopardstown earlier this season underlined the point.
Well able to operate on quicker ground, he nevertheless doesn’t look quite as formidable on it, and he never looked happy in last month’s Gold Cup. He plugged on gamely for second behind Inothewayurthinkin but the historic hat-trick only briefly looked on the cards.
“Obviously, he’s trying to break his Punchestown Gold Cup hoodoo but there’s not Fastorslow there this year, so hopefully he can finish out his season in style,” said Patrick Mullins.
It means the horses-for-courses theory will be a recurring theme ahead of the day two festival feature. Willie Mullins is usually a subscriber to that, and to the premise that it’s incumbent on connections to run their best horses in the most valuable races.
Considering France’s Gold Cup, the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris, takes place at Auteuil in just over a fortnight, and is always run on soft ground, Galopin lining up here is not without significance.
In contrast, this is very much Spillane Tower’s prime Gold Cup target of a largely frustrating season. A place ahead of Galopin Des Champs in last November’s Durkan, he was well behind Banbridge in the King George and hasn’t been seen since.
Banbridge failed to fire at Cheltenham in the Gold Cup and is once again on a retrieval mission here. Last season he flopped in the Ryanair before dropping back in trip to land the two-mile Grade One. In terms of ground, trip and track, these look to be his ideal conditions.
Monty’s Star ran an honourable fourth in the Gold Cup but is lowest rated of the quartet, over a stone behind Galopin Des Champs. A heady 175 mark underlines his fundamental quality, and that class can win out despite circumstances.
A pair of Willie Mullins’s Grade One Cheltenham winners aim to secure the festival double on Wednesday.
Bambino Fever will try to become the sixth horse to complete the Cheltenham-Punchestown Champion Bumper double when lining up under Jody Townend. The mare Fayonagh in 2017 is one of the elite handful to manage the feat. Colreevy in 2019 was the last mare to win.
Mullins also saddles Copacabana, while Kalypso’chance is another that lined up at Cheltenham.
One horse that didn’t is Colcannon, who had run too many times in bumpers to qualify. Instead, Noel Meade has waited for this since Derek O’Connor’s mount beat Sortudo at the Dublin Racing Festival. That should leave Colcannon fresher than most, which by the end of the season is always a plus.
Wednesday’s opening Grade One, the Channor Novice Hurdle, will see Jasmin De Vaux try to emulate The Nice Guy in 2022 by adding this to Cheltenham’s Albert Bartlett. And in the process he’ll have to persuade his trainer that he can jump properly.
Even after winning at Cheltenham, Willie Mullins labelled Jasmin De Vaux as “probably one of the worst jumpers in racing”. To underline the point, he also threw in “so unnatural” into the mix.
It didn’t stop the 2023 Champion Bumper winner winning the Albert Bartlett, but Punchestown’s tighter track is a different sort of test that’s likely to put more pressure on his suspect technique.
Honesty Policy is a Grade One winner from Aintree, although a value alternative to both could prove to be Fleur In The Park who shapes as likely to benefit from stepping up in trip to this three-mile test.
Seo Linn overcame her free-running tendencies to win at Aintree. If she races kindly, the concluding Mares’ Bumper looks a fine opportunity for Paddy Twomey’s runner.
