'This is the best chaser I've trained' - Willie Mullins saves highest praise for Galopin Des Champs after third Irish Gold Cup win

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A thronged Leopardstown winner's enclosure rang out to a chorus of Ole Ole Ole as Galopin Des Champs raised the roof with yet another remorseless demolition job to claim a little slice of history with a thumping third Irish Gold Cup success.

In emulating equine icons of yesteryear, Jodami, Florida Pearl and Beef Or Salmon, the handsome nine-year-old finally prompted Willie Mullins to concede that he is "probably" the best horse he has ever trained. 

Out of inexorable respect to those who have carried him to these stratospheric heights, he did so reluctantly and quickly qualified it by describing him as the best chaser he has trained in deference to Hurricane Fly's eminence among the hurdlers. 

However, the glint in his eye said enough. Galopin Des Champs is truly one of a kind. 

They tried to take on Greg and Audrey Turley's 1-2 favourite early here, but he soon swatted them away and went on to gallop and jump with delightful rhythm and precision. He produced that unlikely trademark turn of foot from the last fence to set himself apart at the end of what was a deeply satisfying spectacle for a neutral observer watching this fantastic legacy take shape. 

There is a simplicity and routineness to Galopin Des Champs' disposition these days that defies the rarefied confines within which he operates. Once flamboyant and intractable, he now just dials it in and gets it done. Watching him casually dismiss high-class opposition is something of a chimerical, out-of-body experience. 

Here is an open book of a horse who everyone wants to beat, a horse who invariably does it the hard way, setting his own punishing fractions and teeing it up for those waiting to pounce. Yet try as the opposition may, they cannot take him out of his comfort zone. 

Staying chasing in the highest echelon is the epitome of what jump racing is all about, a demanding and unforgiving discipline that requires inordinate talent, agility and resilience. All those chasing Galopin Des Champs' tail are at the pin of their collar yet he lobs along under Paul Townend like an extra-terrestrial in a parallel universe.

Galopin Des Champs wins his third consecutive Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing FestivalCredit: Patrick McCann

Mark Walsh elected to settle stablemate Fact To File in here and everything went as he might have hoped. He brought his exciting partner through to challenge as they ran down to the last, but the fuel light was blinking and the young pretender could not lay a glove on the champ. 

This was the third time they have met but the outcome was similarly definitive to what it was at Christmas. Fact To File didn't see it out and was nutted for second in the end by Grangeclare West.

Galopin Des Champs was simply toying with them. The winning distance was four and three-quarter lengths, extending all the time. Any conceit of this €250,000 Grade 1 amounting to a meaningful test was summarily dismissed. He is in a different league. 

"It has to be an awesome performance," Mullins said as he digested his 14th Irish Gold Cup success. "His natural galloping pace just enables him to put horses under pressure, and there is no end to him over three miles. Another quarter mile, as Ted Walsh just said to me, and he'd murder them.

video courtesy of www.racingtv.com

"There were four or five of them jumping the first together, but he had burnt them off by the time he got to the third. He is just a real champion."

Florida Pearl was Mullins' first winner of this prestigious race 26 years ago. Galopin Des Champs will need another one to emulate his record four victories, but a body of work that includes two mesmerising triumphs in the Cheltenham Gold Cup sets him apart. 

He is now 8-13 from 8-11 with Paddy Power to make it three next month, and Fact To File won't be in opposition as the Ryanair likely beckons, for this guy is his proverbial brick wall. 

When asked if Galopin Des Champs was the best he has ever trained, Mullins said, with a little reluctance: "He has to be, yeah. It's going to be hard to beat his record; this is the best chaser I've trained and Hurricane Fly is the best hurdler."

It was the first time he has gone that far, and Mullins chooses his words carefully, a point similarly evident when he took the opportunity to have a swipe at the organisers for moving the Gold Cup from its traditional Sunday slot in 2022. 

Paul Townend and Galopin Des Champs following the chaser's third win in the Irish Gold CupCredit: CAROLINE NORRIS

"I don't know if people realise how long it takes to make a horse like this, a three-mile chaser, it is the pinnacle of our game. It takes ages. People go on about hurdlers, like, and I'm a bit confused by the Gold Cup here being on the Saturday and not the feature race on the Sunday. It's only a hurdle race that's on tomorrow. You see how long it takes to make these sort of horses – they deserve the top billing." 

For all that, Leopardstown rocked to the beat of Galopin Des Champs on Saturday. An adoring crowd chanted his name and gave their hero the raucous reception he deserved. They came, they saw and he conquered, and Mullins lapped it all up like a Roman emperor in the Colosseum. 

So too did Townend, who was once again moved to an animated celebration crossing the line. He is riding the horse of a lifetime and relishing every minute of it. 

"He is a very special horse and it was a very special reception he got as well," he mused afterwards. "He has matured into such a straightforward horse and is a pleasure to do anything with. We all fall victim to looking ahead too much in this game, but we'll enjoy today and you can see the crowd has as well." 

That much we did. It has been our privilege to witness his ascension to the pantheon of jump racing's immortals, and he isn't done yet. Roll on Cheltenham.

Cheltenham Gold Cup NRNB (March 14)

Paddy Power: 8-13 Galopin Des Champs, 9-2 Fact To File, 8 Banbridge, 10 Gerri Colombe, 12 Monty’s Star, 14 Il Est Francais, 16 Corbetts Cross, Grey Dawning, 20 Grangeclare West, 25 L’Homme Presse, 28 bar

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'This is the best chaser I've trained' - Mullins saves highest praise for Galopin Des Champs after third Irish Gold Cup win 

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