Willie Mullins might have gone into this weekend with just three winners to show for 47 runners over Christmas and a stable considered out of form, but he retrieved something from the festive period when Galopin Des Champs, the two-time Gold Cup winner, ran out an impressive winner of the Savills Chase at Leopardstown, a track he likes even more than Cheltenham, on Saturday.
Paul Townend, his jockey, set his stall out early to make it a test of stamina and make use of the eight-year-old’s jumping.
Fact To File, who beat him in the John Durkan over 2½ at Punchestown, a course the winner is less in love with, stalked Townend throughout and moved up ominously behind him after the second last. However, Galopin Des Champs drew away from the last to win by 7½ lengths.
Now unbeaten in five starts over fences at Leopardstown, he looks on course to become the first horse to win three successive Gold Cups since Best Mate 20 years ago and, with some bookmakers, is odds on to do so.
“We had plenty on our plate,” said Townend, who has bagged the biggest chases either side of the Irish Sea this Christmas having taken the King George on the outside ride, Banbridge. “I was sick of seeing the other lad [Fact To File] going up the gallop and having to look at him. I was really happy with him coming here and he obliged.
“There’s a good crop of horses coming through, but that performance and the feel I was getting off him today, is that he’s going to take a lot of beating anywhere.”
Mullins, who also won the Grade One at Limerick with Impaire Et Passe, said: “That was some performance. He put in some fantastic jumps and to win the way he did after giving the other horse a lead the whole way was one of the best performances I have ever seen around here.
“It’s frightening to think he could still be improving. What a great day and great atmosphere with people all around the parade ring.”
No one has had a better Christmas than Joseph O’Brien and he landed his third Grade One in as many days when Home By The Lee won the Savills Hurdle. On Boxing Day, O’Brien won the King George VI Chase and on Friday he won the Paddy Power Rewards Chase with 28-1 shot Solness.
But with wins in recent days for Constitution Hill, Sir Gino and, on Friday, The New Lion in the Grade One Coral Challow Novices’ Hurdle, is it possible the balance of power is beginning to turn in the battle between Britain and Ireland with Cheltenham in mind?
A bit like Mullins, the winners have not been flowing as freely for Dan Skelton since Christmas as they were before it but, my goodness, The New Lion looks a bit special. Harry Skelton was toying with his rivals going to the last like a cat plays with a mouse and he did not even have to let out an inch of rein to deliver the coup de grace. The winning margin over Wendigo of 4¾ lengths does Darren Yates’s five-year-old no justice.
“We always thought he was a bit special and he is,” said Dan Skelton, who will take him straight to the Festival now for the Turners Novices’ Hurdle. “He’s so straightforward. That was an amazing performance, they went a really good gallop and we hoped he’d win like that.”
Dan Skelton had already told owner Yates that The New Lion – who was bought to replace Blaklion – was as good a horse as he has had before he ran in a bumper. Now, unbeaten in four starts and winning a Grade One hurdle, that appraisal does not look far off the mark.
