'The whole county seems to have backed him so how did Galopin go off so short?!'- Gold Cup hero returns home after Cheltenham glory
Deputy Ireland editor David Jennings visits Skryne GAA club to see Inothewayurthinkin get a warm welcome
The most audacious and arduous spring double is officially off the cards. Inothewayurthinkin will not have a go at emulating Golden Miller by winning the Gold Cup and the Grand National in the same season so it's 91 years and counting now, but this was not a day for what ifs. It was a day for celebrating an astounding achievement in its own right.
On a gloriously sunny spring evening at Skryne GAA club in the heart of County Meath, the guts of a thousand people turned up for the homecoming of a new hero.
Inothewayurthinkin is the new kid in town now and there will have to be a thorough investigation into the betting patterns of the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup to figure out how on earth Galopin Des Champs was sent off 8-13 given every single person here had the winner backed – one chap got 50-1, another 33-1 and there were others who told me they got 25s and 20s. Well, you are always told to shop local.
We didn't know what Gavin Cromwell was thinking for a lot of the season with Inothewayurthinkin, but that decision to supplement him for the Gold Cup at a cost of £25,000 was arguably the best bargain JP McManus has ever got. And there have been a few of those over the years.
Putting Inothewayurthinkin into the Gold Cup at the last minute was a big decision and taking him out of the Grand National at the eleventh hour was, in many ways, an even bigger one. He was 15lb well in off his new Irish mark of 175 and would probably have been the hottest favourite in the history of the famous race. The carrot was dangling but Cromwell didn't bite.
That is not to say the trainer won't win his first Grand National next month, by the way. Cromwell still has Stumptown, Vanillier and Perceval Legallois, and that three-pronged attack on the Aintree showpiece should not be underestimated. The trainer thinks all three have big chances in their own right and anything he touches is turning to gold these days, as you well know. More about those in a moment, but we are not finished reflecting on the greatest day of Cromwell's career. And Mark Walsh's, for that matter.
"When Majborough got beaten I said to myself, 'Jesus, this is going to be a long week', I was gutted," admitted Walsh, exactly a week on from being beaten on the shortest-priced favourite of the festival in the Arkle. "But, look, it's Cheltenham and anything can happen. I know that by now.
"You have to get over setbacks like Majborough quickly. Once that race is over you have to forget about it straight away. You can't dwell on anything over there, you have to block out all the outside noise and focus on the next one."
Majborough could easily have set the tone for Walsh's week, but he didn't let it. He dusted himself down and delivered a masterclass for the remainder of the festival.
Walsh was happy the whole way in the Gold Cup, but Cromwell wasn't. Their personal recollections of the race were very different indeed.
"Yeah, I was happy everywhere." Walsh said. "We went a good gallop. Paul [Townend] was on my outside and I knew by his body language that he wasn't happy from a long way out, so I knew that if I could hang on in there that Paul mightn't be on a going day. I got a clear run around and he jumped great.
"I couldn't believe how much I had underneath me going to the second-last. He had loads left. I know it was still a long way from home, but he jumped the last two so well and just went by Paul so easy."
Cromwell was going through contrasting emotions.
"I watched it down on the track, at the bottom of the chute, with Jake [son]," Cromwell said. "Mark said he was happy the whole way but, I won't lie, I thought he was flat out the whole way!
"His jumping was good, though, and he does race behind the bridle. I wouldn't usually be one for shouting, but myself and Jake fairly roared him home after the last!"
Let's hear from teenage son Jake, who led in Inothewayurthinkin last Friday along with groom Caoimhe O'Brien.
So, then, what was he like during the race?
"He was good. He was sitting on Galopin Des Champs's heels the whole way," replied Jake.
Perhaps I should have clarified that I was wondering what his father was like during the race rather than the horse himself!
"Ohhhh. Sorry. He was shouting. We were both shouting. It was nervous coming to the second-last, but then when he passed us and he was clear it was very exciting. We started jumping around the place."
Jake's dream is to become a jockey. His idol? "Keith Donoghue."
His mother Kiva still can't quite believe what has happened. Her father Tom O'Brien captained Skryne to championship glory in Meath back in 1954 so to see Inothewayurthinkin parade around the same football pitch he played on meant a lot.
"Gavin is still as calm as ever. You wouldn't know any difference in him," Kiva replied when asked how her husband has been coping since Friday.
"I think I'm still in disbelief. He was up against a champion in Galopin Des Champs. You never expect to win against a horse like that. For us to actually do it was unbelievable. I still can't believe it."
One man who can believe it is Pat Martin. After holding a training licence for decades, he decided to call it a day recently in order to join the Cromwell team.
"It's no surprise to see all the success when you see what happens around here," Martin said. "To progress from just being one of the guys to getting to the next level is tough, but to go from that level to a higher level again is extremely tough. But when I see the operation and the way it works, it's not a shock to me at all. Gavin was always very enterprising. He was always an entrepreneur, even when he was a blacksmith.
"A lot of his earlier horses used to come in and work with mine in Slane, but he got the hang of it very quickly and he's come a long way since those days."
He certainly has, and could the next chapter of the fairytale be penned at Aintree?
"Ah, it was a no-brainer, really. I'm very happy with the decision," Cromwell said of taking Inothewayurthinkin out of the Grand National.
On his new Aintree team, he added: "I'm happy with the three of them. I know Stumptown and Vanillier both ran at Cheltenham, but they both ran really well and they seem to have come out of it in great shape. It's a short turnaround, which is a concern, but if they can bounce back from it, both have a chance and so does Perceval."
Cromwell is a man on a mission once again. That mission is usually accomplished.
Inothewayurthinkin's homecoming, in pictures:
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