Patrick Mullins is expecting Galopin Des Champs to come forward significantly from whatever he does in Sunday's John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase.
A back-to-back winner of the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup, he finished third behind the reopposing Fastorslow on his seasonal return in the contest last season and hasn't had an uninterrupted preparation for the race this time around.
“He just had a couple of easy weeks, rather than completely missed them, so there’s that part and he got beat in the race last year," the assistant trainer explained.
“He’s ready to start, he schooled and worked very well at the Curragh on Tuesday but if he doesn’t win it’s not going to be the end of the world. The third Gold Cup is the main aim for him this season and he's going there to win on Sunday but it's not the end of the world if it doesn’t happen.
“It’s going to be a fascinating race watching Fact To File taking him on along with Spillane’s Tower and Fastorslow. Fact To File was second in the Champion Bumper, he’s not a slow horse, and the horse that beat him was a Flat-bred horse in A Dream To Share.
"He won the Brown Advisory but was keen and his performance when he beat Gaellic Warrior at the DRF, and I don’t think that horse ran to form that day, but the trip posed no fears for Fact To File.
“He did get beat first time out last season so there is that but of a query as well but I think this is a really good place to find out where he slots in against the two top chasers in Galopin Des Champs and Fastorslow. I think two-and-a-half miles will really suit him and we’ll know a lot more after Sunday."
Mullins rides Soir De Garde in the closing bumper, a horse with plenty to live up to.
“He’s a horse I like a lot. He’s a half-brother to State Man, by Kapgarde. He’s six, he’s had his issues, but we had him ready to run at Ballinrobe in May. He was declared, I was up there, but it was good ground and we just decided having waited on him for so long, as Willie says you can wait a month for ground or a year for injury, we'd took the patient approach.
"We put him away for the summer, came back and he’s ready to start. I think he’s a horse with a lot of ability but he might just need the run to blow the cobwebs away. I think he’s definitely one – going forward – to be keeping an eye on.”
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