Galopin Des Champs could be best staying chaser since Kauto Star

Galopin Des Champs could be the best staying chaser since Kauto Star, according to Ruby Walsh.

Willie Mullins’ stable star delivered the goods in the Cheltenham Gold Cup with a 7l victory from Bravemansgame to confirm his status as the top dog over fences.

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Speaking on the Cheltenham Review episode of our From The Horse’s Mouth podcast, our resident jockey-turned-pundit branded Galopin Des Champs a ‘brilliant winner’ of the Blue Riband race.

But Ruby, who partnered Kauto Star for his two Cheltenham Gold Cup wins, admitted Galopin Des Champs is a different type of horse to his former mount, who won over a whole host of distances.

Ruby Walsh:

“The riding was top class and the race had everything. You had the King George winner leading the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup winner to the second last and away they went and you ended up with a brilliant winner. If you were to write what I dreamt Gold Cups would be, you wrote this race.

“He could be [the best staying chaser since Kauto Star].

“He’s a brilliant racehorse but he’s in a different generation. Kauto Star won two Tingle Creeks, could you ever see Galopin Des Champs winning a Tingle Creek? He had that pace against two-and-a-half-mile horses but he never dropped back to two.

“He is the out-and-out staying chaser who looks like he gallops forever. I just hope, like Constitution Hill, that he stays sound enough that he can entertain us for years.”

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