Galopin Des Champs – Farewell to a True Champion

There are good horses, there are Grade 1 horses, and occasionally there are those rare champions who become part of the rhythm of the National Hunt season.

Galopin Des Champs was one of those horses.

The news of his death at just ten years old is desperately sad, particularly coming only five days after his retirement had been announced. Having left Willie Mullins' Closutton yard to begin what should have been a long and happy second career with Ruby Walsh's family, Galopin Des Champs suffered a severe injury to his near-fore leg while in his field. Despite immediate veterinary attention, the damage was found to be irreparable.

For racing followers, that makes this one particularly difficult to take. We had already said goodbye to the racehorse. We thought we were about to watch the great champion enjoy retirement.

Instead, racing has lost him altogether.

And what a racehorse he was.

For those of us who approach racing primarily as punters, perhaps the greatest compliment you can pay Galopin Des Champs is that he was a horse you could trust.

That doesn't mean he always won. No horse does.

It means that when the chips were down, when stamina, jumping, courage and class were all required, you knew what you were going to get.

He stayed. He travelled. He jumped. And when Paul Townend asked him to find something, he found it.

That combination made him formidable.

The day a champion was crowned

His first Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2023 was the day any lingering doubts disappeared.

He had already shown enormous ability, but there was still that memory of the Turners Novices' Chase a year earlier, when he had the race at his mercy only to come down at the final fence.

Some horses never quite recover psychologically from incidents like that.

Galopin Des Champs got better.

In the 2023 Gold Cup, he travelled with that trademark ease before eventually powering away from Bravemansgame to win by seven lengths. The most demanding staying chase in Britain had found its new king.

Twelve months later he came back and did it again.

Different race. Different conditions. Same result.

His 2024 Cheltenham Gold Cup victory over Gerri Colombe put him into an exceptionally select group of horses to have won the race more than once and confirmed that we weren't merely watching the best staying chaser of that particular season.

We were watching one of the outstanding staying chasers of the modern era.

Leopardstown belonged to him

If Cheltenham made his reputation internationally, Leopardstown felt like his home.

Seven victories there tell their own story.

Two Savills Chases and, remarkably, three consecutive Irish Gold Cups.

For the punter, those Leopardstown performances told you almost everything you needed to know about him. He wasn't dependent on races falling perfectly into his lap. He had tactical speed, but he also had the stamina to make the race a searching examination.

Perhaps his most devastating performance came in the 2023 Savills Chase, when he destroyed a high-class field and beat Gerri Colombe by 23 lengths.

Then came another Savills Chase in 2024, followed by his third successive Irish Gold Cup.

Paul Townend has recalled the extraordinary reception Galopin received after that third Irish Gold Cup. He said he could hear the roar from the Leopardstown stands as the horse negotiated the final ditch, and the reception in the parade ring afterwards was something he had rarely experienced.

That's when you know a racehorse has crossed the line from being merely successful to being loved.

A punter's horse

There is another reason I think Galopin Des Champs appealed so much to serious punters.

His greatness wasn't complicated.

You didn't need to invent excuses for him or convince yourself that hidden sectional figures made him better than he looked.

He did it on the racecourse.

He stayed beyond three miles. He handled different ground. He possessed a high cruising speed. He could race prominently or settle into a rhythm. And as his career developed, his jumping became wonderfully economical and assured.

He was also extremely tough.

A Gold Cup isn't won by brilliance alone. Horses have to travel through the race, conserve energy, jump when tired and then climb that Cheltenham hill when practically every other horse around them is beginning to hurt.

Galopin Des Champs did it twice.

And he very nearly did it three times.

His attempt to join the immortals in 2025 ended in defeat, but there was no disgrace in finishing second to Inothewayurthinkin. He subsequently reminded everybody of his ability by producing one final demolition job at Punchestown, beating Spillane's Tower by 22 lengths in the Punchestown Gold Cup. Timeform subsequently named him its Horse of the Season for the second successive year.

That Punchestown performance would ultimately prove to be his final victory.

The numbers only tell part of it

Fifteen victories from 26 starts.

Twelve Grade 1 victories.

Two Cheltenham Gold Cups.

Three Irish Gold Cups.

Two Savills Chases.

A Punchestown Gold Cup.

Three Cheltenham Festival victories in total.

Nearly £2 million in prize-money.

Timeform rated him 181 at his peak, with only Douvan rated higher among Willie Mullins-trained horses. Mullins himself went even further, describing Galopin Des Champs as the best chaser he had trained.

It's an extraordinary CV.

But statistics aren't really why racing people will remember him.

We'll remember the yellow and brown colours travelling ominously behind the leaders.

We'll remember Townend sitting almost motionless while everyone else's jockey began to get busy.

We'll remember those huge Leopardstown performances.

We'll remember him turning for home at Cheltenham with a Gold Cup there to be won.

And we'll remember that wonderful sight of a top-class staying chaser meeting a fence exactly right, landing running and simply galloping his rivals into submission.

For a punter, there are few better sights in racing.

The best chaser of his generation

Perhaps history will debate exactly where Galopin Des Champs sits alongside the great staying chasers.

Kauto Star had his versatility. Denman had his relentless power. Best Mate won three Gold Cups. Arkle inhabits territory that almost belongs to another sport.

Galopin Des Champs doesn't need comparisons.

He built his own record.

Two Cheltenham Gold Cups and three Irish Gold Cups are enough.

In my view, he was quite simply the best chaser of his generation.

More importantly, he was the sort of horse National Hunt racing desperately needs — a champion who returned season after season, contested the great races and gave supporters something to look forward to throughout the winter.

When Galopin Des Champs was entered in a staying chase, the race mattered.

When he walked into the parade ring, people watched.

When Paul Townend began creeping closer turning for home, punters holding a Galopin Des Champs ticket started believing.

And when he hit the front, more often than not, he kept going.

His death, so soon after retirement, feels particularly cruel. He had done everything that had been asked of him and deserved many peaceful years away from the pressures of racing.

That was sadly not to be.

But nothing can take away what he gave the sport.

Galopin Des Champs — dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, triple Irish Gold Cup winner, twelve-time Grade 1 winner and, above all, a genuine champion.

For those of us who backed him, watched him and admired him, it was a privilege.

Thanks for the memories, Champ.