“Olé! Olé! Olé! Olé!” rang around the parade ring as Galopin Des Champs (1/2f) returned to a hero’s welcome after a scintillating third straight triumph in the Grade 1 Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup on the opening day of the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown.
It was a third Grade 1 of the day for Willie Mullins and a remarkable 14th triumph in the race for the champion trainer.
In winning, Audrey Turley’s son of Timos joined the likes of Jodami, Florida Pearl and Beef Or Salmon but as a dual Cheltenham Gold Cup victor, he is in a different calibre to that trio.
As has become customary, the nine-year-old dictated proceedings while appearing to do a half-speed and never touched a twig.
Stablemates Embassy Gardens, Grangeclare West and Fact Or File – ridden patiently after settling better than in the Savills Chase at Christmas - loomed into contention turning for home, along with Monty’s Star but having been booted into the last, Galopin Des Champs displayed his customary acceleration on Leopardstown’s closing stretch to bound clear and record an 11th Grade 1 triumph by four and three-quarter lengths from the unconsidered Grangeclare West, with Fact Or File third.
A capacity crowd at Leopardstown illustrated their appreciation of what they had witnessed, and they were ten deep around the parade ring as Townend whipped them up for a very rare type of welcome in this sport.
“It’s a very special reception,” the champion jockey agreed afterwards. “We don’t experience it a lot in racing. It’s the closest we get to scoring a goal somewhere (significant) and running to the crowd and taking it in.
“The way the public are getting behind them adds a little bit of pressure but you have to enjoy it.
“Something that never before happened to me, when we were jumping the last ditch, I could feel and hear the roar from the stands.
“You just lie on his neck now and he spots (a stride) from a long way away. What a champion. And you could go out on him in a head collar. All the reins are for is to turn him the right way and not fall out the back of him!
“I am very lucky to have come across him in my lifetime and so are the owners. And the brilliant thing about it is they don’t take it for granted and they really love the horse. For them to see the public are behind him now is brilliant.”
Majborough (8/11f) overcame some sloppy jumping errors to run out an easy winner of the Grade 1 Goffs Irish Arkle Novice Chase by nine lengths from Touch Me Not.
Mark Walsh made the running on last year’s Triumph Hurdle winner and the five-year-old also produced some prodigious leaps in maintaining his advantage, before extending it.
Without being asked too many questions, JP McManus’ exciting youngster eased away from Touch Me Not and was good at the last to confirm the result, providing jockey and owner with a double on the card after Percival Legallois had won the Race And Stay At Leopardstown Handicap Hurdle.
“He’s a monster isn’t he?” was Walsh’s immediate verdict of Majborough. “The size of him. He does everything so easy, he felt like he was hacking though I knew we were going a good gallop. He has a high cruising speed.
“He made a few mistakes because we were going on a stride. It’s only his second run over fences, he’s going to learn. He wasn’t a tired horse at the finish. He galloped all the way to the line.”
Mullins finished the day with three Grade 1s and he is appreciative of the talent he has accumulated at Closutton.
“I was looking at it from the stands, whereas everyone else was looking at it on the TV,” he began. “The whole crowd were going ‘ooh and aah’ every time he got close to one but watching it from the side, he never looked in danger, never looked like falling. The camera does lie now and again.”
“Mark said he gave him a squeeze coming up to the winning post and there was plenty in the tank, which is a fair thing to say after running at that pace for two-miles-and-one around here.
“He’s always been a standout, for me, of his generation. We had Fact To File the year before, this fella this year and Final Demand (winner of the opening Grade 1 Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle) is now the younger generation coming on.
“They are nice horses to have.”
