What was billed as a match turned into a rout as Gaelic Warrior proved much too good for Fact To File in Wednesday’s Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup.
The sport’s two top-rated chasers had taken turns beating each other earlier this season only for the campaign to end with no doubt about the reigning Cheltenham Gold Cup champion’s superiority.
Just as in jump racing’s ‘blue riband’ six weeks previously, Gaelic Warrior barely came off the bridle for jockey Paul Townend and the 5-6 favourite put 26 lengths between himself and his stable companion, who’d got the better of their previous clash in February’s Irish Gold Cup.
If hopes for a repeat of their epic John Durkan clash in November weren’t realised the sight of a mercurial talent reaching mature magnificence was surely more than ample compensation for most of a bumper festival attendance of 26,432.
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Townend admitted his most anxious moments were going to the start when Gaelic Warrior’s exuberance threatened to boil over. The horse he likens to a tank was indeed tanking. But just as at Cheltenham, initial keenness morphed into, for this horse at least, relative docility.
Mark Walsh on Fact To File opted to lead but from a mile out he shaped as being little more than a target. Joined three out, Fact To File was headed before the straight and doomed to being the middle leg of a Willie Mullins 1-2-3 with Grangeclare West beating Inothewayurthinkin for third.
It meant Gaelic Warrior emulated Sizing John who added this prize to the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2017. They are the only horses in two decades to manage the feat. Even Gaelic Warrior’s illustrious stable companion Galopin Des Champs couldn’t manage it. Sizing John ran just twice more over fences afterwards. Given a fair wind, a finished article Gaelic Warrior may be only getting started. He’s already just 2-1 to retain the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2027.
“He was saucy on the way to the start which worried me a little bit, but he did chill out when we got there and once we jumped off he dropped his head,” said Townend who described the winner as an “iron horse”. He added: “He was always thinking on his feet, and he’s grown up a hell of a lot. He has a hell of an engine.”
Mullins had drawn a blank on the day up to the big race but ultimately cemented his position on top of the trainers’ table in style in the €300,000 feature.
“A lot of our horses, today especially, have run poor – horses who have come back from Cheltenham. So, I thought Fact To File might have the edge because he might be that bit fresher. But it didn’t work out that way,” he said. “I always feel class horses will produce even when the rest of the stable may be going back a little bit.”
Mullins’s form fears subsequently seemed even more unfounded when his second-string for the Grade Three Mares’ Bumper, Even Tho, ran away with it to the tune of 16 lengths.
Elsewhere, amateur jockey Josh Halford secured a first Grade One victory when coming in as a late substitute for With Nolimit to land the Champion Bumper.
Halford, 20, only learned hours before he had the ride after original jockey Barry O’Neill cried off the Gordon Elliott-trained horse through injury.
The son of former Group One winning trainer Michael Halford made the most of his opportunity, sweeping up the outside on the 14-1 winner to ultimately beat favourite The Mourne Rambler by almost two lengths.
“We were never going to be using anybody but Josh if Barry couldn’t ride. The only reason that Josh wasn’t riding him was that he was 7lb wrong with no claim,” Elliott said. “I’m delighted for Josh, he works in the yard and he works very hard.”
Halford subsequently received an eight-day suspension for his use of the whip.
Harry Derham, one of the rising stars of the British training ranks, saddled his first Grade One winner as 18-1 outsider Le Frimeur proved much too strong for the local team in the Channor Real Estate Novice Hurdle.
Unlike many of his opposition, the unbeaten Le Frimeur skipped Cheltenham but did win shortly afterwards at Newbury. It was the horse’s first try at three miles, although jockey JJ Slevin was confident of his stamina and kicked for home from the second last.
The top-flight winning mare Zanoosh tried to cover the move but couldn’t get to her rival after the last and Le Frimeur was stretching away at the line.
Derham, 31, is a nephew of 14-times British champion trainer Paul Nicholls, who he assisted for six years before striking out on his own in 2022. He was also a Cheltenham Festival winning jockey before calling it quits in the saddle when still a teenager.
Jessica Harrington had a second winner of the week as Quinta Do Lago put in a smooth performance to land the conditions’ hurdle.
Wednesday’s 26,432 attendance was an increase of almost 3,000 on last year.
