Irish Christmas Racing Recap including Galopin Des Champs and Banbridge

Threads all over the place. There was the Joseph O’Brien thread, which started in the King George at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day and ran through Leopardstown on Friday, Leopardstown on Saturday, and collected Grade 1 prizes wherever it went.

There was the Gordon Elliott thread, and the landmarks, 100 Grade 1 winners, 100 winners in Ireland this season, 2000 winners in all seasons, all achieved this week. There was also the wow-factor thread, Galopin Des Champs and Brighterdaysahead, as well as Constitution Hill and Sir Gino across the water.

The King George plan for Banbridge looked precariously perched when he was well beaten on his seasonal return in the Fortria Chase at Navan in November. He had to leave that performance behind him next time in the Hilly Way Chase at Cork, and he did, challenging Energumene and giving him 10lb when he departed at the last.

The unknown about him during the King George preamble concerned his stamina for the three-mile trip. You often hear it said, if you are going to stay three miles anywhere, you are going to stay it at Kempton. But the King George is relentless, no hiding place. You have to stay if you are going to win a King George. History is littered with high-class chasers who stayed two and a half miles but who came up short in the King George.

And Il Est Francais and James Reveley ensured that it was a true test, out in front from early, fence to fence, metronomic. Paul Townend bided his time on Banbridge. The only other horse who was still on the bridle as they wheeled around the home turn, Banbridge had fully eight or nine lengths to make up on the leader as they levelled off for the third last fence, and he found them all. Catalysed by a momentum-generating jump at the final fence, he went on to win by almost two lengths, with the first two 10 lengths clear of their rivals.

The winning time was fast, unsurprisingly, almost nine seconds faster than the time that The Jukebox Man clocked in winning the Kauto Star Novices' Chase over the same course and distance earlier in the day. That was in contrast to last year, when Il Est Francais was over four seconds faster in winning the novice race than Hewick was in winning the King George.

The Race iQ sectionals make for interesting reading too. Banbridge was faster through each of the last four furlongs than every other horse in the race. Taking the last half-mile in its entirety, he was 2.26secs faster than the next fastest horse through that section, and that is significant. Interestingly, the next fastest was Il Est Francais.

All of which tells you that Banbridge stayed all right. He had to see out every yard of the trip if he was going to catch the leader. The Ryanair Chase appears to be his most likely target at the Cheltenham Festival, but connections shouldn't rule out the Gold Cup as an option.

Paul Townend was a brilliant deputy on Banbridge, but you had to feel for regular rider JJ Slevin, who was committed to Leopardstown on King George day. Unperturbed, Slevin went out on Solness in the Grade 1 Paddy's Rewards Club Chase the following day, kept him wide, kept him clear (clearer than the visibility) and kept him going all the way to the line, leaving Gaelic Warrior and Marine Nationale and Dinoblue in his wake.

It was one of those result that was difficult to decipher even after the race, but it was just reward for Bronsan Racing for taking the punt, for coming up with the supplementary entry fee to put their horse into the race.

It was the eighth career Grade 1 win for JJ Slevin, and he rode his ninth 25 hours later, two years to the day after he had ridden his second, on the same horse in the same race, in a similar manner.

Home By The Lee is not a swing-along-on-the-bridle horse, he is not an electric-turn-of-foot horse. But he is brave and he is classy and he is tenacious and he gives you everything.

Pushed and cajoled along by his rider as they rounded the home turn, just like he was two years ago when he won his first Savills Hurdle, with several of his rivals apparently travelling better, he ground it out on the near side, hit the front on the run-in and won going away. That was three Grade 1 wins of the Christmas Festivals for Joseph O’Brien from just four Grade 1 runners – the fourth runner, Jordans, finished second in the Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick – for a trainer who is reportedly concentrating on the Flat these days.

Gordon Elliott has trained an Ebor winner and a Railway Stakes winner on the Flat but, when The Enabler won the opening maiden hurdle on Sunday, that brought up his 2000th National Hunt winner in Ireland. And, when Brighterdaysahead won the Neville Hotels Hurdle two hours later, that brought up the 100th Grade 1 win of the trainer’s career.

It was fitting that such a landmark would be brought up by such a horse, in such a race, in such a manner.

Gordon Elliott has never really tried to hide the regard in which he holds the Gigginstown House Stud mare. She was racing for the 10th time on Sunday, and she was winning for the ninth time, her only defeat coming when her chance was severely compromised by a pedestrian pace at Cheltenham in March.

Stepped into open company this season, she proved that she deserved her place at the highest level when she lowered the colours of State Man in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown last month. The market expected the reigning Champion Hurdler to exact his revenge on Sunday, but the Kapgarde mare bossed the race, and State Man couldn’t get to her.

Settled nicely in the slipstream of her stable companion King Of Kingsfied from early, the fractions were frenetic from flagfall. 13.45secs, 13.33secs, 13.78secs early on, and a penultimate furlong of 13.73. The pace was strong and it was relentless. No let-up.

When Sam Ewing angled his mare off the rail and moved up on the outside of the leader on the run to the second last flight, it was apparent that State Man was struggling to bridge the gap. And he didn’t. On the contrary, Brighterdaysahead powered on over the last and up the run-in to win by 30 lengths.

This wasn’t State Man’s day, he obviously performed well below his best, as evidenced by the fact that Winter Fog just got up to nut him for second place. Even so, the performance that Brighterdaysahead put up was fairly breathtaking. She could hardly have been any more impressive than she was.

Any time they were asked during the preamble to Sunday’s race about future plans, Cheltenham thoughts, connections said Mares’ Hurdle. But there is obviously a decision to be made now.

It was a brilliant week too for Sam Ewing, who, given the opportunity, was not found wanting. Five winners, including three Grade 1s, and he led home two Grade 1 one-twos for his boss Gordon Elliott: Romeo Coolio over Bleu De Vassy, Croke Park over Better Days Ahead. Just. It’s desperate luck for Jack Kennedy, on the sidelines through injury, but the reigning champion jockey will undoubtedly find solace in the fact that Cullentra is replete with top-class horses, perhaps better stocked than ever before, young horses on the up who continue to climb, and that they will all be there for him when he returns.

Rachael Blackmore was back in the winner’s enclosure after the Grade 3 mares’ hurdle on Sunday, just a few days after her return from injury. She had ridden July Flower in the Grade 2 mares’ bumper at Aintree’ Grand National meeting in 2023, and the mare had returned to Henry de Bromhead this year after a spell in France.

On her last run in France before Sunday, the Pastorius mare had finished third in the French Champion Hurdle, just over a length behind Hewick and over four lengths in front of Home By The Lee and Irish Point, and she was delivered by her rider with a perfectly-timed run to get up and get the better of the year-younger Kala Conti. She could be a big player in the Mares’ Hurdle picture, especially if Brighterdaysahead is ultimately Champion Hurdle bound.

A few of the high-profile Willie Mullins horses came up short but, if you had asked the champion trainer on Christmas Eve for one horse, just one horse that he wanted more than any other horse in his Christmas arsenal to step forward, he might have said Galopin Des Champs.

The re-match between Fact To File and Galopin Des Champs in the Savills Chase was one of the most anticipated contests of the Christmas period and, just like the John Durkan Chase, in which the younger horse came out on top, it didn’t disappoint.

Fact To File made the jump from top-class novice into the premier league when he won the Punchestown race, and he probably took another step forward on Saturday. But Leopardstown is Galopin Des Champs’ playground. Before Saturday, he had raced there over fences five times and he had won five times. And, just as he did last year, Paul Townend had him into his racing rhythm from early, out in front and jumping.

A little keener than ideal early on, Fact To File closed on him on the run to the final fence but, once Townend gave his horse a squeeze, the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner came away from his rival up the run-in. It was an imperious performance, and it consolidated (or regained for him, depending on your pre-race disposition) his place at the top of the top table of staying steeplechasers, the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, now favourite to join the elites as a three-time winner.

You could tell, as horse and rider crossed the winning line, what the victory meant to Paul Townend, and you could tell what it meant to Willie Mullins and owner Audrey Turley when they came back into the winner’s enclosure. And to the crowds. They packed deeply and they cheered loudly.

The people appeared to appreciate the quality of the performance that they had just witnessed. That was another thread that ran through the week.

www.donnmcclean.com

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