Savills Chase reaction: Galopin Des Champs hot favourite for Cheltenham Gold Cup

There is plenty to ponder in this uneasy hinterland between Christmas and the New Year. What day is it? Where am I? Could these new slippers really be smelling so badly already or is it the now-putrefied wedge of cambozola emanating from the fridge?

In a typical year, one could also be forgiven for weighing up who was most impressive, the King George winner or the Savills Chase winner? 2023 is clearly not one of those years after Galopin Des Champs produced a draw-dropping effort to win Thursday’s Savills Chase by 23 lengths from main market rival Gerri Colombe, thought by many to be the new kid on the staying block.

Gerri Colombe had briefly gone favourite in the morning of the race too, soon after the news filtered through that John Durkan winner Fastorslow, together with Envoi Allen and Janidil, had been taken out on account of the rain-hit ground.

And – hand on heart – I fully got that move. Gerri Colombe should arguably have been protecting an unbeaten record coming into it, having looked the best horse on the day when narrowly failing to reel in The Real Whacker at Cheltenham last March, and he’d overcome a lack of match sharpness to beat the Ryanair winner Envoi Allen in a tactically-run Champion Chase at Down Royal on his first start in the big league.

Which is more, his trainer Gordon Elliott was on the rampage, racing almost half a million euros clear of Willie Mullins in the trainers’ championship, and he and Jack Kennedy were on a roll again after winning the first Grade 1 feature of the day, the Jack De Bromhead Christmas Hurdle, courtesy of Irish Point.

Gerri didn't yet have the form to match a peak Galopin Des Champs, yet here was his chance to shine after a deluge turned the ground heavy in places.

But ho-ho-no. Mullins is the top dog in these parts at Christmas and has been for years, a fact of which punters had seemingly reminded themselves after a late wave of support saw Galopin Des Champs sent off the marginal market leader at 6/4.

Those who kept the faith had underlined that the April defeat came not long after a Cheltenham Gold Cup performance which surely took some sort of toll, and that the two and a half-mile trip of the John Durkan was an insufficient test for the horse on his seasonal reappearance.

The one slight issue which was harder to explain away was the tendency for Galopin Des Champs to balloon the odd fence. He’d been scruffy getting from one side to the other at Cheltenham in the spring and he was even more stand-offish on his comeback when finishing third.

Those fears were almost immediately put to bed when Paul Townend took aim at the very first fence and asked him up. There was no semblance of a mistake from that point onwards, despite giving one around halfway plenty of air for whatever reason, and he was eating lengths out of the others with his fencing over the final three obstacles.

If Hewick, Shishkin and Allaho put National Hunt fans through the wringer at Kempton, Galopin Des Champs’ Leopardstown success was just so devastatingly final; he crushed a young rival thought capable of potentially being his equal, and while Fastorslow’s antepost Gold Cup odds were also cut in the immediate aftermath of this annihilation, any mumblings of ‘boosting that one’s form’ realistically can’t be considered with a straight face.

Shishkin should and most probably would have won the King George; to suggest Fastorslow might have downed Galopin Des Champs for a third time had he been given the chance on this day would be fanciful.

No, make no mistake, the king is back on his throne and anything with any thoughts of snatching the crown come early-February or mid-March is now playing a daunting game of catch-up.

The aforementioned Irish Point was the other major market mover on the day after breezing to victory in the Jack De Bromhead Christmas Hurdle, although this wasn't a true test on his first try over three miles and it was his natural speed - having won over much shorter on his comeback - that really made him stand out.

Those who took the big prices about him for the Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle are sitting pretty but the revised 5/1 isn't very exciting as he'll be made to dig a lot deeper, by plenty of classier rivals, if making his Cheltenham Festival debut this coming spring.

The standout performance earlier on the card came from Fact To File, the six-year-old sent straight over fences by Mullins without a hurdling campaign. He lined up in the Ballymaloe Relish Rising Stars Beginners Chase following a promising second on chasing debut last month and oozed class on his way to a 17-length verdict over Zanahiyr.

With Corbetts Cross, Indiana Dream and Inthepocket to juggle as well, JP McManus has some serious talent in the novice chase ranks this year and, keeping that in mind, it wouldn't be a shock were Fact To File to be ushered down the National Hunt Chase route. Having said that, Mullins stating "I think he could go the whole way" has at least left us with something to mull over while polishing off the festive cheeseboard across the next few days.

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