Willie Mullins has been on Melbourne Cup duty in Australia but waiting at home is an upcoming decision on when steeplechasing’s top-rated star Galopin Des Champs returns to action.
A potential Cheltenham Gold Cup hat-trick in March is ultimately the target for Galopin Des Champs who for the last two seasons has begun his “Blue Riband” winning campaigns in Punchestown’s John Durkan Chase.
Successful in the 2½-mile contest in 2022, last season he could finish only third to old rival Fastorslow before bouncing back to form with a superb 23-length winning display in Leopardstown’s Savills Chase over Christmas.
Mullins has revealed “Galopin” had to have some time off last month but is yet to decide when the 179-rated star gets his new season under way.
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“We’ll probably do more or less what we did last year, although looking through his record he got beaten twice at Punchestown – at the start and end of the season – and his previous run he was also beaten at Punchestown.
“Maybe he doesn’t like the place, but I think the two and a half miles probably beat him [in the John Durkan] and Fastorslow is a good horse anyhow and was going well in the Gold Cup when he fell,” the champion trainer said.
“He missed a couple of weeks last month with a small issue, but it’s resolved now so we’ll see if he’s ready enough for the John Durkan (November 24th). Maybe we’ll wait until Christmas. When I go to gallop him, we’ll see how he is.
“I get a lot of feedback from Paul [Townend] who knows him inside out, so he’ll be a great help in deciding where we go first time,” he commented to his sponsors, sportinglife.com.
Bookmakers reckon the biggest threat to a Galopin Des Champs’ hat-trick bid will come from his stable companion Fact To File, an impressive winner of the Brown Advisory at the Cheltenham festival last March. He too holds a Durkan entry.
“Usually, a horse like this aiming for the Gold Cup, we’d start off in the John Durkan and then aim for Christmas – there’s the King George and other races then, so we’ll see how he gets on with his first race and then take it from there,” Mullins commented.
The reigning champion hurdler State Man is also on course to return to action in the Unibet Morgiana Hurdle later this month, a race he has won for the last two years.
“I’d imagine he’ll probably go for the Morgiana and then the usual route of Leopardstown at Christmas, Leopardstown for the Irish Champion Hurdle and then Cheltenham for the Champion Hurdle.
“It’s worked every year and he’s a good, solid, straightforward horse who doesn’t do anything flashy but gets the job done,” his trainer said.
Mullins has a single runner at Tuesday’s Fairyhouse fixture – Iris Emery in the opening Beginners Chase – as good ground conditions continue. Watering is taking place at the Ratoath track where the Grade One “Winter Festival” programme will take place at the end of the month.
Champion jockey Jack Kennedy returns from suspension on Tuesday with a trio of Gordon Elliott rides that include Croke Park for Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud team in the opener.
Kennedy is an 11/4 shot with some firms to retain his championship this season although Paul Townend is a heavy odds-on favourite to get it back. Townend is currently on 31 winners, 11 ahead of Kennedy.
Sam Ewing has made the most of the latter’s absence to currently top to the table on 39 with Darragh O’Keeffe on 32.
O’Keeffe enjoyed Grade One success at the weekend with Envoi Allen repeating his 2022 victory in Down Royal’s Ladbrokes Champion Chase. Trainer Henry De Bromhead is weighing up a potential King George bid for Envoi Allen over Christmas.
“It looks like Christmas next and whether we try the King George again or not. I feel we have unfinished business, and it might be worth having another go. Obviously, there is also the Savills Chase at Leopardstown, so we’ll see.
“He never turned up at all [in the 2022 King George] but we found a few issues afterwards, so we hope that was it. He has been brilliant and is a brilliant horse with such class,” De Bromhead said.
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