Glorious Galopin tops a fabulous five-timer for Team Closutton
Paul Townend celebrates winning The Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup (Grade 1) on Galopin Des Champs
Ladbrokes Gold Cup Day at the Punchestown Festival belonged to Willie Mullins as the Carlow trainer recorded an incredible five-timer that was topped by a scintillating performance from duel Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs, who dominated the day two feature at the Kildare track.
With temperatures hitting 25 degrees on track, the Audrey Turley nine-year-old produced a display of the ages from the front to make it third time lucky in the Punchestown Gold Cup when romping to a 22-length success over Spillane’s Tower.
After finishing second at the Cheltenham Festival in a bid to win three Gold Cups in a row on the final day of the 2025 Festival, Paul Townend went out to make all and the champion jumped from fence to fence to secure a facile success in the sparkling sunshine.
The race was over as a contest barring accident as Galopin rounded the home turn as the riders in behind were all hard at work, and after massive leaps at the final two fences, Mullins’ stable star romped home to the cheers of the Punchestown Festival.
Many of the 23,285 crowd packed themselves around the parade ring as Galopin Des Champs returned to a piper playing and there was cheers aplenty as one of the greatest Steeplechasers of all time done a lap of honour around the ring “He was back to his very best,” beamed Willie Mullins after the race. “His jumping was fantastic and Paul was full of confidence on him. I thought he was more at home today. I was a little bit worried about the heat and the weather, I'd imagine the other trainers were too.
“You could see from the start he was enjoying himself, there was a spark in him from jumping off. Paul wasn’t taking no for an answer at any stage and the horse answered every call. Good horses deserve to run in good races and good races deserve to have the good horses as do big meetings like Punchestown, there are none bigger at this stage of the season.”
The Louis Fitzgerald Hotel hurdle saw Willie Mullins record the first of his five winners as the well-backed Kaid D’authie ran out a three-and-a-half length winner without jumping with any degree of fluency throughout the two-mile-three-furlong contest.
Backed into 9/4 favourite, the JP McManus owned French bred took up the running after the second flight of hurdle, but he made a number of alarming mistakes throughout the contest under Mark Walsh, but when it mattered most, he stayed on strongly to get the better of Blue Mosque and Got Glory.
Speaking afterwards, the winning trainer said: “We decided to take all the head gear off him to see would it help his jumping, but I’m not sure it worked. He has no regards for hurdles, and we think that he’ll be better over fences. He has a huge engine and he is a huge horse.”
Despite making a mistake at the final flight of hurdles, Albert Bartlett winner Jasmin De Vaux (13/8) pulled out all the stops for ironless Paul Townend to land the Channor Real Estate Group Novice hurdle by half a length in beating Honesty Policy.
It gave Mullins his first of three Grade 1’s on the day as the Cheltenham bumper winner of 2024 pecked at the back of the last that saw his jockey lose an iron, but after getting rid of the second iron, Townend got his mount up in the shadows of the post to the roars of favourite backers.
“He just does it when he has to,” said his trainer afterwards. “He's not the world's best jumper. Paul asked him for a big one at the last, he gave it to him but he nearly tipped him out of the saddle. It was great jockeyship by Paul to stay in the saddle.
"It's a fantastic achievement to get that done, get the job done. He did what needed to be done.”
As temperatures soared into the mid-twenties by the time of the off of the Race & Stay Punchestown Bumper Grade 1, it produced a stunning winner as Bambino Fever backed up her wins at both the Dublin Racing Festival and the Cheltenham Festival under a confident ride from Jody Townend.
Running freely throughout the course of the two-miler, Townend tracked the leaders before making headway just under two furlongs from home as both Copacabana and Kalypso’chance cut out the running off the home turn.
The 11/8 favourite went clear of the final challenger, Switch From Diesel, with just under a furlong to go to race clear for her fifth career win by two-and-a-quarter lengths success with Mullins declared that the winner “looks like a very good filly and I’m really looking forward to going jumping with her next season.”
Without a win in over two years, James Du Berlais (7/1) completed the five-timer for Wilie Mullins when coming from off the pace set by So Scottish to ease to the front after the second-last to score under JJ Slevin in the Grade 3 Handicap Chase.
It brought to an end a remarkable day for Willie Mullins and his team with the highlight been the performance of Galopin Des Champs in the Punchestown Gold Cup to bring to eight winners from the opening two days of the Festival.
