Galopin Des Champs the brightest star of a star-studded weekend

Galopin Des Champs lit up the Dublin Racing Festival with another brilliant display at his favourite track on Saturday when bringing up a hat-trick of wins in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup, his seventh straight victory at Leopardstown.

The scenes in the aftermath of this latest triumph are normally reserved for the hallowed turf at Cheltenham, but such is the growing status of this rare talent that impromptu renditions of Olé,Olé,Olé resounded around the course.

It is wonderful to see a horse capture the imagination of the public in this way and most unusual for it to be the case with a horse that is so frequently beaten.

Galopin Des Champs has lost four of his last nine races, which under normal circumstances would be more than enough to dampen down the enthusiasm, but fans of the sport can see past those defeats - all occurred at either the beginning or end of campaigns at Punchestown - and are well aware that he is bossing a vintage crop in the most demanding division.

I have tried to analyse what makes him so good and to be honest it simply boils down to the fact that he jumps and stays. His jumping in particular is probably his best attribute as he is so economical and assured over his fences. With 22 fences to be negotiated in a Gold Cup a horse needs to jump efficiently to win and you will struggle to find a more consistent jumper of a fence than Galopin Des Champs.

To say he stays is somewhat of an understatement. He actually possesses a change of gear at the end of these stamina sapping contests and while he can take a little while to hit his top speed, once he does he simply powers away from the opposition. The uphill finishes at both Leopardstown and Cheltenham play to this strength.

Paul Townend’s partnership with Galopin Des Champs cannot be underestimated either. Townend gets him to settle into a rhythm from a very early stage in his races, organises his stride well in advance of fences and then leaves the jumping to his partner. He also understands the need to stoke up Galopin Des Champs early when the normal tendency for a jockey is to wait as late as possible before asking their mount for maximum effort. All of this makes for a special partnership.

Remarkably the dual Gold Cup winner wasn’t even favourite for the blue riband event at Cheltenham at the beginning of this season, such was the apparent strength of the opposition this time around, but as the season has progressed he has stamped his authority on the staying chase division once again and is now odd-on to complete the elusive treble in the Cotswolds.

The scenes at Cheltenham next month will be something to behold as Galopin Des Champs goes in search of his third Gold Cup in a row. Everyone with a love for the sport will be collectively holding their breath as he approaches the last fence and willing him up that final climb to immortality. He is already at least on a par with the best chasers I have witnessed in my lifetime and I simply cannot wait to see him produce another stellar performance at Cheltenham.

Back to the Dublin Racing Festival and it really was a terrific weekend, particularly for the punters that packed the venue over the two days. 7 winning favourites out of 15 races and no winner at double figures odds indicates that most punters will at least have backed a winner or two and many will have come away with a right old touch.

Willie Mullins didn’t quite manage to dominate at the level he did twelve months ago, but still managed 7 winners, 6 of which were Grade One contests.

Gavin Cromwell kept his recent good run going with 3 winners across the weekend and also bagged a Grade One winner with Hello Neighbour.

Gordon Elliott had no joy with his 26 runners, but still managed to collect €145,500 for his owners in place prize money. Unfortunately it was nowhere near enough to maintain his lead in the Trainers’ Championship as Willie Mullins has powered to the front, scooping up over €1 million in prize money across the two days.

Mullins had 53 runners at Leopardstown which equates to 30% of all the horses that competed over the weekend.

Last year 11 horses that ran at the Dublin Racing Festival went on to win at the Cheltenham Festival on their next start, but only four of those horses had actually managed to win over the weekend at Leopardstown.

Could there be another seven horses that were beaten over the weekend that will bounce back to win at Cheltenham? I doubt it, but it certainly gives some hope to the connections of the casualties and also rans that their luck might be about to change.