1 week Ago By [email protected] (Jon Lees)
Willie Mullins’s revelation that dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs had missed a couple of weeks of training has put the date of the star’s comeback into question. Galopin Des Champs clinched a second victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival when he defeated Gerri Colombe in March. During the last two campaigns, the champion jumps trainer of Britain and Ireland has used the John Durkan Memorial Chase, on November 24, as a launch point of his star’s season.
Mullins outlined plans to give him a similar campaign in his Sporting Life stable tour , even though Galopin Des Champs’s last three visits to Punchestown has ended in defeat, each time behind fierce rival Fastorslow. But he also said: “He missed a couple of weeks last month with a small issue but it's resolved now so we'll see if he's ready enough for the John Durkan. Maybe we'll wait until Christmas .
“When I go to gallop him we'll see how he is. I get a lot of feedback from Paul who knows him inside out, so he'll be a great help in deciding where we go first time.” Galopin Des Champs is the 7-2 joint favourite with stablemate Fact Or File, in William Hills’s betting, to win a third Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Mullins’s comments about Galopin Des Champs were discussed by Ruby Walsh and Lydia Hislop on their popular Road To Cheltenham programme on RacingTV. Walsh said: “I’d imagine he will gallop next week, but he is in full work. It was a pretty minor hold-up.
" Hislop observed it was unusual for Mullins to go public in this way. “I’m reading into that that he might be further behind for his first run than I would otherwise be expecting him to be," she said. Walsh replied: “I’d say he was putting out fires for fear he doesn’t run in the John Durkan because that’s where everybody would expect him to be.
So forewarned is forethought.”.
