Still so much to take for Mullins from return of Galopin Des Champs

Willie Mullins knows he is in a privileged position having both the current dual Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs in his yard and the young pretender to his throne, Fact To File.

Fact To File got one over on his older stablemate when they met for the first time in Sunday’s John Durkan Memorial at Punchestown, but Mullins was delighted with the performance of Galopin Des Champs, particularly as he had suffered a minor setback in the build up to the race.

“We know (we’re privileged to have two Gold Cup contenders), but look at JP (McManus, Fact To File’s owner), he has Spillane’s Tower (Punchestown runner-up) and he’s in everyone’s mind, too – that was a fantastic run,” said Mullins.

“It’s amazing to have two horses like that in the stable, but every morning you wake up wondering if the two of them are feeling OK – after every run, after every work, will they pull a muscle that will put them out of Cheltenham because with these staying horses, if they miss two or three weeks, our rule of thumb is that for every week they miss, they have to go back. So if they miss three weeks, they won’t run for three or four weeks after that. Fingers crossed they all stay sound.

“Fact To File still has to get up there and do it, Galopin Des Champs has done it.”

He went on: “Galopin Des Champs didn’t race until he was four, so a lot of people might say the French horses tail off but he had an easy early life, like an Irish bumper horse. Even though he’s French, he had like an Irish preparation so I think he’s still on top of his game and I’m looking forward to seeing how he handles this year.

“I probably said it all the other day about his run in the Durkan. I thought he ran a cracker, he did all the donkey work while the rest cruised in behind and had a go at him at the second-last, but he was still there going to the last.

“I thought for his first run it was a hell of a run and I took a lot out of it. We were beaten by two good novices, but it’s easier to challenge when you’ve cruised behind than been up in the van.

“He’d had a corn in a joint so had a little hold up as well. Missing those few weeks were crucial, but I wanted a run before Christmas and took a chance.

“Myself and Paul (Townend) are very happy where we are. Grangeclare West was fitter than Galopin Des Champs and he took it out with him, but he couldn’t finish the race which tells you the pace they were going.

“Over that trip (two and a half miles) it is lovely to get a run into them rather than over a gruelling three miles, it was a lovely place to start all the horses and tell us where they fit in the scheme of things. I think we’ll stick to the plan with him and do what we did last year.”