To join the pantheon of steeplechasing greats, Galopin Des Champs simply has to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2025. He’s done it twice before and scared off much opposition away from the Festival blue riband this year.
Plenty points to Galopin Des Champs enjoying a fourth win at this major meeting. A third Irish Gold Cup where he confirmed superiority over stable companion Fact To File in staying chases chief among the evidence.
Golden Miller’s record is probably beyond any racehorse, but tying Arkle, Best Mate and Cottage Rake by completing the hat-trick beckons. Some of Willie Mullins’ other top horses haven’t fired across the first two days of the Festival, and Cheltenham results reflect that.
Galopin Des Champs isn’t a talented novice, but rather a proven performer on this grandest of stages. It won’t surprise anyone that the opposition largely follows him across the Irish Sea from the Emerald Isle.
Although a few names in the line-up are new to him, the market says Galopin Des Champs is the most solid of Cheltenham favourites this year. Either of his previous wins should be enough. That’s the thinking.
In practice, the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2025 poses new challenges for Galopin Des Champs. Each of the next three in the betting behind have a previous Festival win on their CV, so they too know what it takes.
Each of the king’s would-be conquerors has their own points to prove. One runs in the silks of the Albert Bartlett sponsors, while another carries the even more famous colours of JP McManus.
The key Cheltenham races at the Festival that leading owner targeted this year got away. No Arkle, no Champion Chase, so could McManus come away with another blue riband instead?
Corbetts Cross, Inothewayurthinkin in Cheltenham Gold Cup of 2025
Galopin Des Champs has beaten last season’s Kim Muir winner Inothewayurthinkin before. Trainer Gavin Cromwell has obviously enough improvement from him from Christmas to the Irish Gold Cup for another round.
Despite still needing to find some seven lengths, Cheltenham betting sites have Inothewayurthinkin as third-favourite here. A tendency to jump right isn’t helpful on a left-handed track like Prestbury Park either.
That might say more about the lack of quality in the Cheltenham Gold Cup of 2025 than any of Inothewayurthinkin’s merits. Cromwell has done well with other member of the family, notably saddling sister Limerick Lace to Festival success in last year’s Mares’ Chase.
But McManus also has Corbetts Cross in contention among his Cheltenham horses for a tilt at the Gold Cup. He won the final edition of the National Hunt Chase before it became a handicap. With bottomless stamina, he represents a danger at a bigger price to Galopin Des Champs.
Emmet Mullins has often prepared Corbetts Cross for the Festival in unusual ways. Prior to his infamous running out at the final flight in the Albert Bartlett in 2023, his prep race at Naas was over a mile shorter.
Something similar occurred again this term with Corbetts Cross finishing second to track specialist Pic D’Orhy in the 2m 5f Ascot Chase. It’s not how most trainers ready past Cheltenham winners for the Gold Cup.
Unorthodox methods from the younger Mullins may not be as mad as they look. His uncle is a dominant force and it might take some outside the box thinking to thwart the Closutton juggernaut that is Galopin Des Champs.
Banbridge Will Like Going, But Must Demonstrate Extra Stamina
More or less since it became clear Fact To File would run in the Ryanair Chase instead, the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting moved Banbridge into second spot. Successful in the Martin Pipe three years ago, he flies the flag for the Joseph O’Brien stable.
What a shame that this talented young trainer focuses more on the Flat. O’Brien does have a very handy jumps string still, however, and Banbridge took his form to a whole new level when landing the King George around Kempton on Boxing Day.
Until then, he’d never raced under Rules beyond two-and-a-half miles. Banbridge caught frontrunning French raider Il Est Francais, another going for the Ryanair Chase in 2025, off a searching gallop. He stayed an easy three miles just fine.
The question is can Banbridge last a quarter-mile further on an undulating track? Much of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2025 hinges on that. Of an age with Galopin Des Champs, but only effective on sounder surfaces of good to soft or better, Banbridge may get his ground.
Mainly dry weather in the run-up to a packed Cheltenham schedule is in his favour. The Clerk of the Course must be careful with watering, because of the threat of overnight frost. Stars sometimes align in sport, and there’s a story here either way.
Galopin Des Champs would lose little in defeat. He’s already a multiple Gold Cup winner. Banbridge is the only one within 12lb of him on official BHA ratings, but the blue riband is never just a two-horse race.
It’ll take an exceptional performance to beat Galopin Des Champs. During a mixed first-half of the Festival for Mullins mounts, the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2025 is the prize Closutton wants to capture most for a fifth time in six years and seven seasons.
