Performance of the week over fences at Cheltenham 2025 This award was going to be decked in green and gold hoops, one way or another, long before the curtain came down on the 2025 Cheltenham Festival. The scintillating Ryanair win from Fact To File was already a leading contender before Inothewayurthinkin ripped up the Gold Cup script to steal away the crown from Galopin Des Champs. It might be fairest to suggest it's a dead-heat between the two, but the Gold Cup is the Gold Cup, and that's enough to warrant Gavin Cromwell's rising star taking the accolade. Inothewayurthinkin rips up the script In the countdown to the Cheltenham Gold Cup, all talk centred on Galopin Des Champs and his bid for a Blue Riband treble. His efforts at Leopardstown since Christmas in successive Grade 1 wins meant there was only one horse dominating the market. So much so, only a few heads were turned when JP McManus and Gavin Cromwell decided to pay the supplementary fee to add Inothewayurthinkin to the line-up. It was to be his fourth meeting with Galopin Des Champs of the season and, previously, there were few signs he'd topple the great champion. He was down the field in the John Durkan in December as Fact To File won, then fifth and fourth in the Savills and the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown. On reflection, he cut the deficit in half each of the three times they met, but even so, it was a big ask to topple Galopin Des Champs. He's two years the junior of the dethroned champion and, possibly, ground no worse than 'good to soft' aided his cause here. Paul Townend, on the champ, never quite seemed to be going as we have seen him before, but it appeared they were coming to do their business when it mattered most. Mark Walsh, who ended the week on four winners alongside Townend, had other ideas. Inothewayurthinkin didn't meet three out perfectly but from there he looked a massive danger and the writing was on the wall when he hit the front going to the final jump. Walsh's partner kept going to the line, six-lengths clear in the end, and was a fully meritorious winner of the biggest contest in National Hunt racing. Defeating a horse of Galopin Des Champs' ilk only served to heighten the sense of achievement. Aintree, and a possible tilt at the Grand National looms next. It is 91 years since Golden Miller became the only horse to do the double in the same season, but if connections of Inothewayurthinkin opt to head for Merseyside next month, he'll have around a stone in hand off his current mark of 160. Fact To File gets an honourable mention Though he swerved the Gold Cup in the end, Fact To File put up a superb performance in landing the Ryanair Chase, like Inothewayurthinkin 24 hours later, winning back-to-back races at the Cheltenham Festival in doing so. He'd twice been defeated by Galopin Des Champs in Ireland since winning the John Durkan, but had finished in front of Inothewayurthinkin in both instances. A query regarding his stamina for the Gold Cup trip was one fear but, more so, the shadow of Galopin Des Champs put his connections off. Were he trained by, say, Henry De Bromhead and not Mullins, would it have been different? Regardless, like Vautour in the past, Fact To File turned in a splendid display in winning the Ryanair Chase after opting out of the Gold Cup challenge. The two McManus horses deserve their places on the podium for best performance of the week over fences and they are joined there by the ultra-impressive Queen Mother Champion Chase hero Marine Nationale, who dominated the two-mile Championship event after Jonbon's early mishap gave him the initiative. Get €50 in FREE bets with the Betfred sign up offer:
