Knight expecting three Gold Cups for Galopin – and maybe four

Best Mate’s trainer Henrietta Knight has given her backing to the “magnificent” Galopin Des Champs ahead of his bid to emulate her superstar chaser and become just the second horse this century to win three Cheltenham Gold Cups.

Multiple winners of the blue riband are far and few between and as well as Best Mate, only Golden Miller and fellow hat-trick heroes Cottage Rake and Arkle are the names Willie Mullins’ nine-year-old could join on the list of Cheltenham Festival immortals.

And the 78-year-old believes Galopin Des Champs would be fitting of joining those champions in the pantheon of Gold Cup greatness, as she warns the nine-year-old may still have yet to hit his peak.

Knight said: “I think he will do it and he’s definitely the one to beat. He obviously loves Leopardstown, but he has proven he likes Cheltenham as well and he’s obviously in great form.

“He’s looking older and stronger this year and I think he’s a horse who has everything going for him and I think he’s only getting better, he couldn’t have been more impressive in the Irish Gold Cup.

“I thought Fact To File would be a Gold Cup contender this year, but maybe he just doesn’t quite get the extra distance.

“I can’t see anything getting past Galopin Des Champs. He has the chance to join some elusive company and maybe he could win four.”

There were tremendous scenes in the Leopardstown winner’s enclosure after Galopin Des Champs secured his third Irish Gold Cup in February, and Knight is predicting similar in the Cotswolds for a horse whose popularity is now rivalling that of her own three-time Gold Cup king.

She added: “They deserve to have enjoyed the results they have had with him. He’s a very popular horse with the public and if there is a horse who is going to do the same as Best Mate, then I hope it is him as he is a horse I have always loved, I think he’s a magnificent horse.”

Ted Walsh saddled Commanche Court to finish second to Best Mate in the 2002 Gold Cup and has seen many of Ireland’s greats descend on Prestbury Park during his long and decorated career in the saddle, as a trainer and in the commentary box.

Well qualified to assess his nation’s latest equine icon, the 74-year-old believes Galopin Des Champs has proven he is the “complete package” by fending off every challenger so far and agrees with Knight that a fourth Gold Cup would not be unthinkable in 12 months’ time.

“He’s the dominant horse in the division and there’s nothing there you could say is a danger to him barring his own self, health or bad luck on the day,” said Walsh.

“He’s proved he can get three and a quarter miles well, he handles Cheltenham, he’s a good jumper and he comes from a yard at the top of the game with both a good man on his back and a good man training him, what more could you want? There’s no negatives.

“He’s the complete article because you can ride him any way and handles any type of ground. He’s a horse Paul (Townend, jockey) can buck out in the first two and if something goes quick you can sit second or third and if there’s no gallop he can make it.

“He’s so straightforward and you can set his clock by him and if he does get beat then he will only just get beat, he never runs a stinker.

“Last year we thought there might be a few novices coming along to take him on, but nothing has. When he got beat in the John Durkan we were all saying these are the new Gold Cup contenders, but they’re not there now. That I think is a sign of his true class and he never misses a fight.”

Victory for Galopin Des Champs would not only see him match Arkle in terms of Gold Cup wins, he also has the chance to eclipse Kauto Star, the horse wildly regarded as the best since Tom Dreaper’s National Hunt colossus and ridden during his heyday by Walsh’s son, Ruby.

And while Walsh feels it is unfair to compare the reigning champion to giants of old, he highlighted the Audrey Turley-owned gelding’s longevity – along with his champion connections – as a reason he has garnered such a huge following.

“It’s very hard to judge where he would stand (in history) and we’ve had some very good Gold Cup horses, but the one thing about him is he is a very sound horse and has stood the test of time,” continued Walsh.

“He’s going back for his fifth run at Cheltenham and not that many top-class chasers go to Cheltenham five seasons in a row.

“Some have done, of course, and the likes of Kauto Star, he did it, but there’s not that many and he’s proved he is a sound horse well able to stand up to the rigours of racing. He has four or five runs every year and he’s been able to take a fall or a loss and put it behind him and come back and win.

“He’s a truly great Gold Cup horse and I don’t think it’s fair to compare. I remember Arkle and horses like that, but you can’t really compare as they ran in handicaps that gave them chance to prove how good they were.

“If there was an Irish Gold Cup and Savills at Christmas in Arkle’s time, I’m sure he would have run in them, but the only conditions races he ever ran in other than the Gold Cup was the King George, so it is hard to compare weight-carrying performances to what Galopin Des Champs is doing now.

“He could match Arkle and Best Mate, but you have to judge him on all the things he is able to do – he’s young enough he could go on and win a fourth Gold Cup. He’s a truly great horse, a great jumper who delivers every day and he has the consistency to match his ability.

“For me he’s a horse who has everything – he’s a popular horse, he’s got a popular jockey, a hugely popular trainer and you need all that. There’s no side to the man who trains him, the man who rides him, the lad who leads him up or the horse himself.”

It is not the first time Mullins has stood on the cusp of entering the Gold Cup record books after Al Boum Photo missed out on joining the elite band of three-time winners in the Covid-hit 2021 Gold Cup.

For some that moment of destiny would never return, but fresh off a record-breaking year when becoming the first Irish-based handler since Vincent O’Brien to lift the UK jumps trainers’ championship, Mullins now has a second chance to add his name to the annals of the Cheltenham Festival.

“It’s the pinnacle of the sport and we’ve been here once before with Al Boum Photo and hit the crossbar. I thought when Al Boum Photo got beat we’d never get another chance at it, but here we are five years later,” said Patrick Mullins, assistant to his father.

“Growing up, it was always reading books and seeing pictures of Arkle. You guys in England had Best Mate, but none of my friends remember a triple Gold Cup winner from Ireland. You see Arkle in black and white pictures and hearing about them feeding him Guinness and eggs, that’s how long ago that is!

“I’ve kicked Adam Connolly off him twice, just to say I’ve sat on him, but I haven’t got to jump him or work him. In fairness Adam rides him in all his work and with all his gear on he would definitely be 14st plus, but he knows him inside out and I think he’s a huge part of the story.”