Willie Mullins top festival trainer as Galopin Des Champs strikes in Martin Pipe

The final race of the 2021 Cheltenham Festival went the way of the Willie Mullins-trained Galopin Des Champs and resulted in the trainer overhauling Henry de Bromhead to land a seventh top trainer trophy.

Turning for home the bonus-chasing Langer Dan loomed into contention for Dan Skelton and Lorcan Williams, but four lengths ahead of him the Sean O'Keeffe-ridden five-year-old was travelling even better.

Langer Dan may have closed all the way to the line but after the last Galopin Des Champs powered clear to win by two and a quarter lengths at 8-1, from 13-2 shot Langer Dan, a pair of 33-1 outsiders Floueur and Whatsupwithyou rounding out four places. Those betting with bookmakers paying five places would need to have backed 66-1 hope Dallas Des Pictons.

Mullins said: “Sean was very cool on the horse. He did everything right. He slotted in and bided his time. When things opened up he still waited and waited and that’s a real sign of a good pilot in the making.”

Click here to watch the full replay of the Martin Pipe

It was a first festival winner for O'Keeffe, whose previous biggest success was landing the Matheson on Eclair De Beaufeu at last year's Dublin Racing Festival.

It was sixth winner on the day for the Irish, the tenth time in Festival history that has happened, and they finished with 23 of the 28 winners.

De Bromhead may have landed the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Gold Cup among his six winners, but courtesy of seven seconds and five thirds Mullins’ landed the top trainer crown on countback.

On the top trainer title he added: “I’m delighted with the way most my horses ran, we had an in and out Festival but they came good in the end. A few of our hotpots got beat, we had a lot of placed horses, and one or two fell at the last.”

Asked for the performance of the week he said: “Allaho stands out a mile. Yesterday I said he might look a King George horse but when I analysed it I feel we should maybe look at a Champion Chase, the way he jumps maybe we should be going back in trip. He’s so slick and fast, it wouldn’t be a big leap of faith to think he could be a Champion Chase horse.”

Read more on the Cheltenham Gold Cup . . .

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