Fastorslow proves he belongs at the top as Galopin Des Champs shows 'no spark' for disappointed Willie Mullins

They say you should never be afraid of one horse and Martin Brassil is making a fair stab at proving you should never be afraid of one trainer either after single-handedly dismantling five Closutton panzers with a precision attack in a gripping John Durkan Memorial Chase.

Fastorslow already rolled his tank on to Willie Mullins' lawn when spoiling the homecoming of freshly crowned Gold Cup hero Galopin Des Champs at Punchestown in April. He was 20-1 that day, but the market didn't give him much credit for beating Mullins' star and he was still sent off 9-1 to confirm his superiority when they lined up back at the Kildare venue on Sunday. 

This time Fastorslow was no less clinical. Brassil was the only trainer who put it up to the champion trainer's quintet in the €100,000 Grade 1 and was rewarded with another glorious triumph after a spellbinding spectacle that was a timely antidote to some of the jump season's early woes. 

In keeping on to be a length-and-three-quarters third, Galopin Des Champs actually got half a length closer to the winner on this occasion, but that doesn't nearly reflect the primacy of the victor. 

Under JJ Slevin, Fastorslow travelled supremely, jumped slickly and quickened decisively. Slevin even dropped his whip on the run to the finish line, but such was his mount's authority that it was a matter of insignificance. 

Appreciate It ran the race of his life to be second after making the running, his tendency to jump left hardly aiding his cause, but this was a performance that confirmed the winner's credentials as a serious contender for the Gold Cup next March.

It was also a day that reinforced concerns as to how much winning the sport's marquee event has exacted a toll on Galopin Des Champs. For a horse who used to run and jump with so much verve, his mojo is nowhere to be seen.

Paul Townend's mount arrived here looking to set the record straight and make the score against Fastorslow 2-1 in his favour following their initial encounter in this race 12 months earlier. However, instead it was Fastorslow who turned that form around to the tune of 20-odd lengths. 

Brassil's Sean and Bernadine Mulryan-owned French import is now as low as 4-1 to scale the game's highest peak, having been as big as 20-1 on Sunday morning. He cannot be dismissed anymore. 

Before the two-and-a-half-mile event, Brassil said his seven-year-old would have to do it all again to prove that what happened in the spring was not a fluke, and he did all of that and more. 

"He needed to back up his run in the Punchestown Gold Cup," the Grand National-winning trainer reiterated afterwards.

"It's onwards and upwards now. This is a lovely race to win. I knew John [Durkan] very well and it's the 25th anniversary of this race so it's a special moment."

JJ Slevin is congratulated after winning the John Durkan Chase on FastorslowCredit: Patrick McCann

Having gone two years and eight completed starts without defeat, Galopin Des Champs has now twice been humbled and Mullins didn't disguise his dejection. 

"I'm just disappointed," he said. "He didn't seem to jump early on and the writing was on the wall from there. There was no spark and Paul said he was very dead in himself. 

"He schooled during the week and pinged fences and I was very happy with him in his work at home, so I'm just disappointed he didn't replicate that. 

"We'll go home and see how he is, but we'll probably stick to what we did last season, when he went to the Dublin Racing Festival [for the Irish Gold Cup], but I'm not making any decision today. We're going home disappointed." 

The Irish Gold Cup is also an option for Fastorslow, but Brassil said the Savills Chase at Christmas could be next up. Despite having to contend with an army of Mullins horses here, the door opened nicely for Slevin's mount when Appreciate It drifted off the inside under Patrick Mullins on the run to the final fence.

It was a gift Slevin was happy to take and, while the rider of the runner-up felt it might have cost him the half-length he was beaten, the winner didn't look to be all out. 

"He was very professional," Brassil added of his emerging star. "He's a very smart jumper who doesn't waste too much time in the air, he loves it. He has a touch of class."

Like Brassil, Slevin was winning a first Durkan and it was just his fifth Grade 1 in all. His association with the Mulryans is starting to bear fruit and they now have a serious animal on their hands. 

"He is just a very good horse," Slevin said of Fastorslow. "Last year the lads were very keen on him and he is just getting better."

For Mulryan, whose Ballymore construction enterprise has long been a patron of Punchestown, the prospect of topping Forget The Past's third to War Of Attrition in the 2006 Gold Cup is something to savour. He also revealed how Fastorslow came to be named. 

"The name was actually a mistake," he said. "A guy in France asked me to name the horse and I asked him, is the horse fast or slow? And he said, 'Okay, that's fine'!"

At this stage it's probably fair to say he is both fast and slow. Exactly how a Gold Cup contender should be.

Cheltenham Gold Cup (March 15)
Paddy Power: 3 Galopin Des Champs, 4 Gerri Colombe, 5 Fastorslow, 12 Shishkin, 14 Bravemansgame, 16 L'Homme Presse, 20 Royale Pagaille, 33 bar 

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