GALOPIN DES CHAMPS maintained his Leopardstown dominance after winning his THIRD Irish Gold Cup at the Dublin Racing Festival.
The Willie Mullins-trained powerhouse ran up a seventh win from seven races on the chase track with Paul Townend on board.
Speaking to RacingTV, the jockey said: “There is a lot of pressure going out on him. Thankfully he is so simple to ride.
“I have ridden a lot of times around Leopardstown. When I jumped the last ditch I could hear the crowd.
“You can often pass in front of them and you don’t hear them. I was in the zone and I couldn’t believe how much of a roar it must have been to make it that far down the ride.
“The reception he got here the last day was really good and you saw here today.
“The crowd that come racing in Ireland, they really do appreciate a good horse, no matter who trains it.
“And they appreciate a foreign horse coming as well once it is a good horse.”
It was his third consecutive Gold Cup, having previously won it in 2023 and 2024, thus becoming the first since Florida Pearl to do the three in a row.
Paul Townend beat out Grangeclare West (66/1) and Fact To File (100/30).
And Galopin Des Champs is now priced at 8/13 favourite to win a third Cheltenham Gold Cup next month.
Townend added: “He obviously has huge talent. His appetite for it is the one. He puts his head down and he gallops.
“It is rare that you can turn in and it is a privilege to turn in at Leopardstown and you look at the last fence and you ride at it like it is not here.
“You know when you land you are going to go to the line. If one goes by you, they go by you but they would have to be very good
“He loves it around here. He takes to it and we are just very privileged to have him I think.”
