WHOEVER invented the saying that it only takes two horses to make a great race was proven spectacularly right again at Punchestown on Sunday.

The will-he-or-won’t-he question over Gaelic Warrior lasting home, having raced with major exuberance early, added real intensity to the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase. Fact To File played his part in the delicious duel, pulling 29 lengths clear of another top-class rival in Fastorslow, but full credit goes to the winner for showing real heart when it mattered most.

Seeing two elite racehorses battle it out up the straight in Grade 1 company is something to be appreciated for what it is, but the nature of the John Durkan’s timing, so early in the season, means it is a race rooted in looking forward to future targets, rather than dwelling on Sunday’s result for an entire season. It was a cracking race, but nobody really thinks that any of the biggest guns had this circled as their peak target of the 2025/’26 campaign.

Inothewayurthinkin is one of the biggest examples of that. He was last of the seven to complete in last year’s race as a 22/1 shot - the first step of his season towards Cheltenham Gold Cup glory. This time around, he was beaten over 52 lengths in fifth of the 10 runners at a near identical SP of 18/1. If it ain’t broke, and all that. He still remains the general 7/2 favourite for the Blue Riband event at Cheltenham.

There was one thing different about this year’s John Durkan, however. It was the first renewal since 2021 that did not feature Galopin Des Champs.

An early-season setback ruled him out of last weekend’s Punchestown highlight, but many wondered entering this winter anyway whether we’d see him as often as in other campaigns.

In the season of his first Cheltenham Gold Cup win - arguably his most impressive Festival victory in putting seven lengths between himself and a peak Bravemansgame from the last to the line - the Turleys’ superstar hadn’t lined up in the Savills Chase that season (due to a rescheduled John Durkan). In his two campaigns since, he has gone John Durkan-Savills-Irish Gold Cup-Cheltenham Gold Cup-Punchestown Gold Cup.

Rust versus rest

That is a demanding schedule, no matter how good you are. It is extremely difficult to think any horse can be at 100% peak readiness each day they run at that level, and over that trip.

Yes, you can debate the merits of whether you’d rather rest or rust heading into the most tenacious test in National Hunt racing, but there is nobody in history with the record of Willie Mullins for delivering the goods in March with fresh horses. Only last season, we saw him produce Jimmy Du Seuil to win the Coral Cup off a 313-day layoff.

Perhaps at least one run less this season could help us see the very best of Galopin Des Champs in the Cheltenham Festival’s greatest prize. He didn’t look himself from early on in last season’s renewal, albeit without Inothewayurthinkin in the line-up, he’d have run out an 12-length winner of his third Gold Cup. We’d have been singing his praises.

That line of no 10-year-old Gold Cup winner since 1998 will be trotted out plenty at preview nights

Comments from Patrick Mullins on the 12-time Grade 1 winner in recent days suggested there is a definite structure to how he is being trained this season.

“We just got held up earlier in the season and Willie was happy to skip the John Durkan and work towards Christmas with him,” said the Grand National-winning rider.

“With him being a bit older, Willie is maybe thinking of gearing his season more towards the end of the season than the start of the season. The Gold Cup is where we want him 100% right, so we’ll work back from that.

“He’s nine going 10, so he’s not young, but at the same time he’s not old. He seems the same Galopin Des Champs to us anyway.”

Clock is ticking

It is that final point of age that many will likely begin to lean into in the lead-up to Cheltenham, should Galopin return to his usual level at Leopardstown at Christmas. A glance at the Gold Cup’s roll of honour suggests time might be his biggest barrier to success. Not since Cool Dawn in 1998 has a 10-year-old managed to win the race. When Best Mate and Arkle brought up their third wins in the Gold Cup, as Galopin Des Champs has been seeking to do, they were both aged nine. He’ll be a year older than them come March.

Still, what do they say about lies, damned lies, and statistics? That line of no 10-year-old Gold Cup winner since 1998 will be trotted out plenty at preview nights up and down the country next spring, but it’s surely more telling to know how many 10-year-olds with realistic chances, like Galopin Des Champs, have tried to do so since Cool Dawn.

In total, from 1999 to 2025, there have been 89 horses aged 10 or older attempting to win the race and only nine managed to make the frame (10%).

How does that return match up with the market expectations for those older runners?

Well, there was only one odds-on chance aged 10 or above in that period, the legendary Kauto Star, who was sent off 8/11 in the 2010 edition when falling four out behind Imperial Commander. (Side note, he entered that race with an astonishing official rating of 193. Galopin Des Champs’ peak mark is 180, and currently 176. What a freak Kauto was).

Overall, 11 were sent off 5/1 or shorter. Crucially, though, based on the SPs of all the older Gold Cup hopes from 1999 onwards, the betting suggested we should have had 4.73 winners from that age range.

Some proper horses have come and tried too, though not necessarily at the peak of their powers. Denman was placed in two Gold Cups (2010 and 2011) at the ages of 10 and 11, and Kauto Star returned to finish third in the 2011 renewal behind a six-year-old Long Run. Nobody could say we saw peak Denman or Kauto that day, for all that it was a thrilling spectacle.

Best results

More encouraging is the fact that On His Own (beaten a short head by Lord Windermere in 2014), Hedgehunter (two and a half lengths behind War Of Attrition in 2006) and Go Ballistic (66/1 near miss behind See More Business in 1999) all finished second in Gold Cups when aged 10. Still, were all of those vintage renewals of the race? Would a higher standard likely be required to win this season’s edition? It feels that way right now, when looking through the quality of stayer in the ante-post listings.

Two of those runner-ups were trained by Willie Mullins, like Galopin Des Champs, and the fact connections are mindful of treating the first half of the season as a build-up to the Gold Cup surely must bode well. They are giving him every chance to peak in March.

There was some chatter online about a recent Racing Post opinion piece that said “anyone who doesn’t consider Jonbon an all-time great needs to question themselves on whether or not they know racing”. That was not a universally accepted view, and understandably so, in my book.

However, if Galopin Des Champs can defy father time and, at the age of 10, join Kauto Star as the only horse to regain his Cheltenham Gold Cup crown, standing alongside Golden Miller, Cottage Rake, Arkle and Best Mate as a triple winner of the race, he can absolutely be considered among the all-time greats.

If last weekend’s John Durkan is anything to go by, we’re in for a hell of a season in the staying chase division.

Best odds: 4 Inothewayurthinkin, 6 Galopin Des Champs, 8 Gaelic Warrior, 12 Fact To File, 14 Grey Dawning, 20 Jango Baie, 25 Fastorslow, The Jukebox Man, 33 Champ Kiely, 40 Majborough, Gerri Colombe, Nick Rockett, 50 bar