Favourite Galopin Des Champs Wins Cheltenham Gold Cup For Willie Mullins

Galopin Des Champs has won the Cheltenham Gold Cup for Willie Mullins after a brilliant performance from the pre-race favourite. Paul Townend rode him absolutely perfectly, keeping him tucked in in midfield all the way around until they came up the hill and he let him loose around the outside. 

Second place Bravemansgame ran brilliantly to provide competition in the home straight as they went over the final hurdle together, but in the end Harry Cobden simply didn’t have the pace in the final furlong to stay with the pre-race favourite. 

It marks off a simply wonderful week for Townend and Mullins who have dominated the Festival for the Irish. But this was the big one they wanted and you could feel the emotion around the watching punters as Townend got emotional on board while giving his post-race interview. 

"It wasn't clean sailing that is for sure! Everywhere I went I was running into trouble. A proper, proper horse because he ran three different races and still won a Gold Cup,”

"I was delighted to see it all going on in front of me. It gave me a chance to fill him up after making up a lot of ground. This race is just different. It brings winning to a different level."

Conflated ran incredibly given there was a late jockey change to come third while Noble Yeats took fourth. It was a fantastic Gold Cup race that saw Ahoy Senor set a fierce pace from the front that several of the pack simply couldn’t cope with. Stattler and Minella Indo were pulled up while last year’s champion Rachael Blackmore also pulled up A Plus Tard after an incident gave her too much to do. 

But this is all about the champion. The favourite that delivered as so many hoped he would and Mullins and Townend can celebrate once more. The most dominant duo in racing.

GOLD CUP RESULTS