Galopin Des Champs has a shot at steeplechasing immortality by pulling off a hat-trick in Friday’s Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Just four horses have won the sport’s ‘Bule Riband’ three times. They make up a legendary elite. Best Mate was the last to pull off a magical three-in-a-row 21 years ago. Cottage Rake did the same between 1948 and 1950. Golden Miller managed five in a row prior to the second World War.
Best off all the peerless Arkle’s three Gold Cups between 1964-66 remain the benchmark of racing excellence.
Perhaps it is their neat symmetry that makes sporting hat-tricks so evocative. Or maybe we’ve just got so used to their value in football. Originating in cricket, when giving a bowler a hat for taking three wickets in a row, in racing the concept has a particular power of its own.
Cheltenham 2025 day four: Live updates, race results and reaction on Gold Cup Day
Outstanding Galopin Des Champs aiming to seal his legacy with Cheltenham Gold Cup hat-trick
Lulamba swagger may be too much for 11-strong Willie Mullins team in Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham
JJ Slevin hoping for Gold Cup redemption on Banbridge after last year’s untimely exit
Allowing celebrations, a few wickets take a few minutes. Sadio Mane once took two minutes and 56 second to score a Premiership hat-trick. The sustained excellence required for such a Gold Cup feat call on incomparable reserves of both quality and durability.
In terms of merit, Galopin Des Champs has already built a career to compare with most any other chaser in the modern era. Be that as it may be, and illogical as it may be, pulling off three-in-a-row matters to his legacy.
That the centre of attention is happily oblivious to all this is at least one consolation to those closest to him fretting about such things.
‘Galopin’ has been tagged as Wille Mullins’s signature performer, his Frankel according to Ruby Walsh. The famously flint-eyed judge rode Kauto Star to win the Gold Cup twice, forced to settle for second in between the two victories. That shouldn’t matter, but it kind of does.
Paul Townend had a chance of a Gold Cup hat-trick in 2021 only for Al Boum Photo to come up short. That fitted. Al Boum Photo probably overachieved by winning it twice. Everything we’ve seen of Galopin Des Champs suggests he’s at another level again, an apt triple champion.
If last season’s 23-length rout of Gerri Colombe at Leopardstown remains Galopin Des Champs’s signature performance – to date – his pair of Gold Cup victories underline the task his eight opponents have in trying to deny him.
Forced to improvise tactically in 2023, he and Townend ultimately swept through to win impressively. Forced into a grind last year, the outcome was the same. The trick for Banbridge & Co is finding an approach to beating him that might work.
It’s been at Leopardstown this season that the Irish racing public have finally taken the best horse in the sport properly to their hearts. The Christmas ovation after another Savills victory was superb. It paled compared to last month’s Dublin Racing Festival.
Come 4pm on Friday, Cheltenham and beyond will be humming with anticipation of one of those rare ‘I wuz there’ moments. All logic suggests an anticlimax is unlikely. To which the only necessary logical response is to look back at Tuesday’s chaotic Champion Hurdle and ponder what can happen in any championship contest around here.
Whatever the circumstances it’s hard to see one of the three home runners upsetting the applecart. Ahoy Senor, Royale Pagaille and The Real Whacker are good but hardly Gold Cup-winning good. That leaves four other Irish hopes aiming to tip the cart over.
A close-on €30,000 supplementary fee paid out by JP McManus to get him into the race indicates some confidence that Inothewayurthinkin has a chance of making it fourth time lucky in clashes with the favourite this season.
If a frivolous niggle is the improbability of such an awkward name on the most famous roll of honour, a more concrete one is about his jumping.
That leaves Banbridge as a genuine stalking horse. Joseph O’Brien’s runner surprised many by having the stamina to win a King George. It will be another surprise if he stretches out further up the famous Cheltenham hill. If he can, there’s a finishing spurt in him that could be devastating.
What we know for certain about Galopin Des Champs, though, is that the end of his races are where he’s strongest. How he stretches clear from the last at Leopardstown is singularly impressive. And he’s just as effective at Cheltenham.
On gruelling ground last year, he passed the post and kept stretching even when the race was won. The gallant Geri Colombe slowed to a walk within strides. That was exceptional stuff by an exceptional champion, one worthy of being a triple-Gold Cup hero.
