Champion horse Galopin Des Champs dies aged 10, less than a week after retirement

A FEELGOOD racing story has turned bitter with confirmation that the dual-Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs had to be euthanised on Tuesday, less than a week after being retired.

The Willie Mullins-trained star, perhaps the best staying steeplechaser since Kauto Star, died from injuries sustained in an accident in his field on Tuesday morning.

Owned by Greg and Audrey Turley, ‘Galopin’ received many plaudits last week when it was announced that time had been called on stellar racing career.

Despite still being a relatively young 10-year-old, the hugely popular gelding was retired by connections who felt that he would struggle to recapture the best form of his pomp when winning steeplechasing’s ‘Blue Riband’ back-to-back in 2023-24. Only Inothewayurthinkin prevented a hat-trick in 2025.

The horse was given to former champion jockey Ruby Walsh to be retrained by his daughter Isabelle with a potential new eventing career in mind.

However, Walsh revealed that the 10-year-old gelding had suffered an injury to his near front leg which vets concluded was unrepairable.

“Sadly, Galopin Des Champs suffered an injury in his field this morning and could not be saved,” Walsh said in a statement.

“He was checked a few times throughout the morning but late in the morning when I went to get him for exercise I found him with a severe injury, high up on his near front leg. He was attended to by our vets immediately, but X-rays revealed extensive unrepairable damage.

“He was a fabulous racehorse whose short time with us has left lots of broken hearts but none more so than those of Greg, Audrey and Sarah Turley, and Adam Connolly who looked after him for so long. He will be sadly missed,” he added.

Galopin Des Champs won a dozen Grade One races during his stellar career including a hat-trick in the Irish Gold Cup around his old stomping ground in Leopardstown. He won 15 of his 26 races in all and earned over €2 million in prize money.

After such a brilliant and courageous career, there was a bitter irony in the horse sustaining such a catastrophic injury when his competitive days were over.

Following his retirement on Thursday, Audrey Turley, in whose colours the horse ran, paid emotional tribute to him.

“Three Irish Gold Cups and the two at Cheltenham, it’s hard to pick out one. Every time it was just a wonderful surprise, it was just magnificent.

“I don’t know if I could say one day, maybe the first Cheltenham Gold Cup, as that was just extraordinary – like something out of a dream, the joy it brought.

“The other day was in Leopardstown when he won the third [Irish] Gold Cup. Everybody was singing, `olé, olé, olé’ and that just made the hair stand up on the back of our necks.

“People love him and we still have people coming up on Instagram and TikTok saying, ‘we miss him, we miss him’. He was so well loved and deserved to be loved, he was just wonderful,” she said.

It is an unlikely blow to Mullins who once described Galopin Des Champs as the best chaser he had through his hands. He described Hurricane Fly as his best hurdler.