Round Two of Galopin Des Champs versus Fact To File is Leopardstown’s mouthwatering Grade One Christmas festival prospect on Saturday.
Willie Mullins saddles both the reigning dual-Gold Cup champion and his potential successor in the €175,000 Savills Chase.
If the Christmas period’s first head-to-head between Constitution Hill and Lossiemouth didn’t quite live up to its billing at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day, a clash between the top two in the ‘Blue Riband’ betting is one to relish.
Fact To File tops Gold Cup markets on the back of last month’s John Durkan success, where Galopin was three lengths behind him in third.
Galopin Des Champs cements status as racing’s best steeplechaser with superb Savills success at Leopardstown
The year in sports quotes: The wit and wisdom - from Damien Duff to Daniel Wiffen, Kellie Harrington to Rory McIlroy
Mouthwatering prospect as Galopin Des Champs and Fact to File renew rivalry
Denis Walsh: Irish sport’s underdog mentality has been replaced with an unabashed hunger to be the best
For a first start outside novice company, it was a close to faultless performance, from which progression is all but inevitable. And yet Galopin fans emerged from Punchestown with faith in their proven article undented.
Having missed some weeks in the autumn, the reigning Horse of the Year raced with notable enthusiasm over an inadequate 2½ miles, only surrendering the lead at the final fence.
With that under his belt, back over three miles, and in a race in which, a year ago, he put up perhaps the most spectacular steeplechase performance ever seen at Leopardstown, Galopin Des Champs is a formidable prospect to any opposition.
All he needs to have a perfect scenario is soft ground but that won’t be the case. Then again, it’s the same for Fact To File, who hasn’t raced on anything as decent as this to date. Maybe he’ll step up again for it, but maybe he won’t. And maybe talk of head-to-head is ultimately misguided.
Probably only Mullins can have an apparent third string like the outstanding Aintree National winner I Am Maximus. Like Fact To File, the eight-year-old races in JP McManus’s colours and is equally rated to him officially on 169.
For anyone else he would be a prime Gold Cup contender. But the depth of McManus’s ‘Blue Riband’ team means all reports suggest I Am Maximus is being prepared for a National defence at Aintree in April.
What is proven is that ground conditions will suit, although it will be his first start since routing Delta Work and Minella Indo in Liverpool.
All of it makes for an outstanding prospect with Fact To File’s potential in particular looking limitless. But it’s hard to ignore the proven article and there’s nothing more proven in this division than Galopin Des Champs.
Hewick would be a valid contender in Saturday’s big chase – as he would have been if defending his 2023 King George title earlier this week – but pitches up instead in the €150,000 Savills Hurdle.
The ever-popular star is now officially in the care of Tara Lee Cogan due to Shark Hanlon’s licence suspension, circumstances that make for a mixed bag in terms of potential headlines should Hewick score.
However, on his favoured quick ground, Hewick brings a level of form, particularly last summer’s runner-up in the French Champion Hurdle, that makes him a danger to all.
Saturday’s third domestic Grade One is Limerick’s €100,000 Guinness Faugheen Chase where Impaire Et Passe will try to build on the positive impression of his Fairyhouse chasing debut.
After retrieving his somewhat tarnished reputation over flights towards the end of last season, he looked to take to fences well, albeit with a tendency to jump left sometimes. With that experience under his belt, Impaire Et Passe could possess too much quality for seven opponents.
La Malmason is 10lbs higher for winning impressively at the Fairyhouse Winter Festival when lining up for the €45,000 handicap chase. However, she looks a transformed prospect on the back of a ‘kissing spines’ procedure, an operation when vertebrae are too close together.
State Man is becoming a Christmas fixture at Leopardstown and goes for a hat-trick in Sunday’s Grade One Neville Hotels Hurdle where he renews rivalry with the top mare, Brighterdaysahead.
They fought out a superb duel in last month’s Morgiana where Brighterdaysahead’s race fitness could have been crucial. State Man has that spin under his belt now and the accent on pace around Leopardstown’s inner track should play in his favour.
If State Man is a fixture, then the most intriguing runner on Leopardstown’s final festival day may prove to be July Flower in an earlier Grade Three Mares Hurdle.
A top bumper performer in her native France, she ran third in the French Champion Hurdle last summer and was subsequently bought for £350,000 (€420,000) and entered training with Henry de Bromhead. She had already had a run for the Co Waterford trainer at Aintree last year.
Last year’s winner Jetara is top-rated in the race on 143 and some of July Flower’s best French form should make her a player on those figures.
The trip for Sunday’s big €100,000 handicap hurdle at the Foxrock course looks ideal for Sa Fureur who won off a higher mark over fences on his last start.
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis
