HAT-TRICK CHASING Galopin Des Champs heads 19 entries for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, with just a record-low five British contenders for March’s blue riband event.
Willie Mullins’ nine-year-old has been imperious in winning the Gold Cup for the past two years and after routing his rivals at Leopardstown over Christmas, is a short-priced favourite to replicate the great Best Mate and land three straight Gold Cups.
His chief market rival appears to be stablemate Fact To File, who lowered Galopin Des Champs colours in the John Durkan before seeing the tables turned in the Savills Chase.
He is, however, also among the leading contenders for the shorter Ryanair Chase after 34 put their name in the mix for that particular contest on Tuesday morning.
King George one-two Banbridge and Il Est Francais both feature in the Gold Cup entries, while at the same time also holding tickets for both the Ryanair and Champion Chase, with Gordon Elliott’s Gerri Colombe and Henry de Bromhead’s Monty’s Star are other notable names for Cheltenham’s main event.
The five tasked with upholding British pride are Dan Skelton’s returning Festival hero Grey Dawning, Venetia Williams’ pair of Betfair Chase winner Royale Pagaille and L’Homme Presse, King George fourth The Real Whacker (Patrick Neville) and Lucinda Russell’s Ahoy Senor.
A surprise omission from the Gold Cup entries is Jimmy Mangan’s beaten King George favourite and John Durkan runner-up Spillane’s Tower, who has a sole entry in the Ryanair Chase.
The JP McManus-owned Jonbon heads the betting for the Queen Mother Champion Chase after 26 were entered.
Amongst his potential rivals is a strong Closutton hand featuring two-time winner Energumene, last year’s Arkle champion Gaelic Warrior and the beaten favourite in the race 12 months ago in the shape of El Fabiolo.
Silly red card for Murphy. Real obvious cheap shot.
@Kevin: aye, total brain fart. Right in front of the ref and nowhere near the ball carrier. Dafty.
@Kevin: don’t think they was his intention, think he was looking for a shoulder to shoulder with McCormick and bump him away from the ruck, instead McCormick got square to him, and it ended up being a shoulder to the mush. But an unnecessary risk for a lad who’d already had a yellow…
Early days and don’t want to the the42 guy but I’m not sure on Iaone. He impressed in the first game but since then …
@Reggordon: yeah he’s in and out of games , prefer Carty or Forde ahead of him
@Reggordon: From a forwards perspective there’s nothing worse than your 10 finding 5 yards from the boot.
Iaone is a spoofer I hate to say. He’s not at thus level. Von need to go looking again and maybe coax a Byrne over west?? Mac was so, So, poor especially in D, I would’ve subbed him. Full back not impressing either.
Murphy is electric and Boyle is the real deal. Others get a C grade.
Josh Murphy is some player. Leinster look foolish to have let him go, McGrath and Foley (who was poor in SA with EI) look like slim cover for JGP
@Andrew Slazenger: presume you meant Ben Murphy, not Josh.
@Andrew Slazenger: how Cormac Foley got the start in the last EI game ahead of Devine I’ll never understand, not a patch on Devine as a player. But he wears Blue, so ya know, the Connacht lad has to be more than twice as good…
@Barry Ward: Ah my mistake! Josh was in my head due to the red card
Iaone has now put 2 kicks into the dead ball zone in the dying minutes of winnable games. Totally unacceptable. His dead ball and place kicking isn’t good enough at this level. Forde, who is an excellent kicker, was on the pitch. This Connacht back line looks amazing on paper but, strangely, of the starters, only Ben Murphy looked like a match winner.