As a forecast 1-3 favourite Galopin Des Champs will be no betting proposition for most at Punchestown on Wednesday, although the Cheltenham Gold Cup hero could supply them with an ‘I wuz there’ occasion.
For one thing, victory in the €300,000 Ladbrokes Gold Cup will be a notable statistical achievement.
Only Sizing John in 2017 has previously pulled off the ‘Triple Crown’ of Gold Cup titles, winning Leopardstown’s version in February before landing the ‘Blue Riband’ itself a month later and finishing up with victory at Punchestown.
Now, Galopin Des Champs is widely expected to pull off the same hat-trick while, intriguingly, perhaps en route to even greater things.
Already holding an impressive 180 rating that officially makes him the best in the sport, the seven-year-old’s superb Cheltenham defeat of Bravesmansgame six weeks ago has got even the most flint-eyed judges anticipating better to come.
Ruby Walsh has acclaimed Galopin Des Champs as being as good a horse as we’ve seen in a long time and one that could even end up one of the greatest of all time.
Since the former champion jockey rode an undisputed great of the game in Kauto Star that’s a noteworthy judgment, especially as Walsh also remains a key player in Willie Mullins’s team and so sees the horse most days.
Despite some mediocre jumping at Cheltenham, Galopin Des Champs ultimately won the Gold Cup in almost ‘push-button’ flat-race style. It is rare to score with such aplomb at the end of such a gruelling stamina test.
Now that stamina doubts have been satisfied, there’s a school of thought that the drop back to three miles might help Bravemansgame bridge at least some of that seven-length gap.
It ignores how the favourite won the Durkan so convincingly in December over 2½, a piece of form that adds to growing evidence about how in Galopin Des Champs’ rather unprepossessing frame lurks a rare combination of top-flight speed and stamina.
Since Sizing John was also only seven when pulling off his 2017 hat-trick, and injury subsequently saw him race only three more times, he remains a salutary warning about getting too far ahead of things too quickly.
Nevertheless, it makes the task Galopin Des Champs’ opposition face in the festival’s day-two feature all the more imposing.
Coming on the back of a smooth King George success, Bravemansgame confirmed his own status as a truly top-class chaser at Cheltenham. A tangled ownership situation since then has proved anything but smooth and meant he was forced to miss Aintree.
Liverpool’s loss is Punchestown’s gain and over the years Paul Nicholls’s raiding instinct has already paid off three times in this race through Neptune Collonges (2007 and 2008) and Clan des Obeaux two years ago.
The latter beat a Mullins Gold Cup winner in Al Boum Photo; however, in this renewal, Bravemansgame’s task looks even more intimidating.
If Galopin Des Champs is a proven operator around Punchestown, then the track looks like being an ideal fit for his stable companion Gaelic Warrior in the Grade One Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle.
Unproven at the three-mile trip, up to now Gaelic Warrior has underlined his habit of both jumping and hanging right. It hasn’t stopped him graduating towards the top of the novice tree, including at Cheltenham, but this right-handed circuit should play to his strengths.
With Sandor Clegane and Three Card Brag opting to skip the Grade One in favour of the earlier Auction Series Final, if Gaelic Warrior’s stamina lasts out he’s likely to prove very hard to beat.
Wednesday’s third top-flight contest sees the Cheltenham bumper hero A Dream To Share try to become just the fifth horse to complete the big festival double.
JP McManus’s purchase supplied memorable scenes by giving 85-year-old trainer John Kiely a first ever Cheltenham victory under 18-year-old Leaving Cert student rider John Gleeson.
The combination overcame the might of Willie Mullins on that occasion and will have to do so again here. Mullins has dominated it with seven wins in the last eight years and 11 in all. He has four chances this time with his son Patrick opting to partner the Gowran winner Tullyhill.
With six weeks to have recovered from Cheltenham though, A Dream To Share remains the one to beat.
