Galopin Des Champs will not compete in this year’s Cheltenham Festival after Willie Mullins confirmed that the 2023 and 2024 Gold Cup champion has suffered a setback.
Last year’s runner-up is sidelined for the season with Mullins revealing to the Sporting Life: “Unfortunately Galopin Des Champs has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
“After working very well on Thursday morning he wasn’t right on Friday morning and will miss the Gold Cup and the other spring Festivals.”
The Audrey Turley-owned gelding finished second to Gavin Cromwell’s Inothewayurthinkin a year ago when attempting to join the likes of Arkle and Best Mate as a three-time Gold Cup champion.
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In two outings so far this season, the ten year old had finished third on both occasions, in the Savills Chase on his return and most recently behind stablemate Fact To File in the Irish Gold Cup, reports the Mirror.
The Gold Cup market now sees Fact to File and Gaelic Warrior as joint favourites at 7/2, with Jango Baie (9/2) and Harry Redknapp’s The Jukebox Man 5/1.
Inothewayurthinkin is priced at 15/2 to replicate his triumph of last year. Mullins’ Galopin Des Champs bombshell arrives shortly after jockey Paul Townend backed the three-time Irish Gold Cup winner to make more history.
”I know Galopin hasn’t been at his brilliant best this season, but I don’t think he’s finished yet by any stretch of the imagination,” Townend, a Betway racing ambassador, said.
(Image: Davies Davies for The Jockey Club/PA Wire)
“He feels in great form at home, and we’re all hoping he’ll return to his peak on the biggest stage of all. ‘”.
“Winning any Gold Cup is a massive achievement, but for him to go there, win a third Gold Cup, and regain his crown would be huge for everybody involved with the horse.
“It’s probably the most open Gold Cup I can remember, and there are plenty of horses in there you could make a really good case for, but if Galopin can return to his best, then he’d have a massive chance.”
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