Nicholls: No stopping Galopin Des Champs lifting third Gold Cup

Paul Nicholls believes Galopin Des Champs is “basically a certainty” to win a third Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup on Friday.

The Ditcheat handler knows better than most what it takes to land the blue riband, having claimed victory in the Cheltenham Festival’s showpiece event with See More Business (1999), Denman (2008) and dual winner Kauto Star (2007 and 2009) – the latter becoming the first horse to regain the Gold Cup crown.

Nicholls will not be represented in this year’s renewal and is finding it difficult to look beyond the Willie Mullins-trained favourite Galopin Des Champs, who bids to become only the fifth horse to win a third Gold Cup and the first since Best Mate 21 years ago.

Speaking at a Festival preview event after racing at Sandown on Saturday, the 14-times champion trainer said: “The only one I think who could possibly give him a race is Banbridge, who is a King George winner who will love the drying ground – we’re just guessing a little bit whether he will stay that extra couple of furlongs.

“He’s never really looked a stayer until he won the King George, but he could be the only one that could even just shake Galopin Des Champs up in the race.

“Some of them could start now and not have a chance. Banbridge has a chance, but Galopin Des Champs is basically a certainty.”

Former champion jockey Harry Skelton also expects Galopin Des Champs to make it a Gold Cup hat-trick, hailing the nine-year-old as “the best stayer I’ve ever seen”.

“Unfortunately, the race is probably going to be thinned out because of him and, to be honest, what he has done the last twice has blown me away. If the race at Leopardstown (Irish Gold Cup) had been another half a mile, then how far would he have won? It was ridiculous,” said Skelton.

“My best advice is if you can get your hands on a ticket for Friday, then just buy it to watch something special and hopefully a third Gold Cup win.

“The Cheltenham Gold Cup is three and a quarter miles and then another half a furlong. That two and a half furlongs to the line, it takes a horse into its reserve tanks like you can’t believe.

“Kauto Star was the best racehorse I’ve ever seen, but I think the best stayer I’ve ever seen on the back of what I have witnessed is Galopin Des Champs. I think he will destroy them, he’s been incredible and the way he’s been minded and trained throughout his career has been fantastic. I think we just need to enjoy him for what he is.”

Nicky Henderson, who won two Gold Cups in three years with Long Run (2011) and Bobs Worth (2013), takes a slightly different view, with the master of Seven Barrows rating Joseph O’Brien’s King George hero Banbridge as a major player.

He said: “Banbridge needs very good ground, but I’m not too worried about stamina. There is a perception that for the King George you could have a two-and-a-half-mile horse that doesn’t have the depth of stamina, but you do have to have the depth of stamina to win a King George.

“The pace Il Est Francais went this year, that was a stamina-sapping race. Banbridge stayed it really, really well and you could even say he was a little outpaced early on.

“If he stays the trip, I think on good ground he could be a very potent threat.”