At Cheltenham, Mullins and Townend were crowned once more.
Willie Mullins and Paul Townend once again won the Cheltenham Festival title for best trainer and jockey with Galopin Des Champs’ Gold Cup victory.
After the favorite Facile Vega was disqualified in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, the duo had a rough start to the week, but El Fabiolo started the week off right in the Arkle with a win.
On Tuesday, Mullins’ son Patrick won the National Hunt Chase with Gaillard Du Mesnil. On Wednesday, the Mullins-Townend team won two more races: Impaire Et Passe won the Ballymore and Energumene defeated Energumene in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
The Closutton team suffered a rare defeat on Thursday, but Lossiemouth regained their composure with a victory in the Triumph Hurdle on Friday, and Galopin Des Champs bolstered market confidence with an unambiguous Gold Cup decision.
With 28 victories and a third top jockey title, Townend is now the most successful active jockey at the Festival, with five winners. Mullins, on the other hand, is miles ahead of his fellow trainers with 94 winners at the meeting. He has served as the fixture’s top trainer ten times.
Patrick Mullins, representing his father, said: “To win the Gold Cup and the Champion Chase, they are half of the major races so that was fantastic. Galopin Des Champs winning the Gold Cup though really was the cherry on the top.
“Six winners is probably where we need to be hitting at least. The amount of horses we have and the standard we have, we needed to do everything we did this week.
“Last year was just one of those years after Covid and everything and we were never going to match that total of 10.
“Taking the Gold Cup and Champion Chase while El Fabiolo (Arkle) and Impaire Et Passe (Ballymore) look like they could be anything so we were very pleased to see them win as well. Galopin Des Champs really was the big one and thankfully he delivered.”
Impervious and Iroko gave JP McManus two victories on the final day, but Sire Du Berlais’ shocking 33-1 victory in the Stayers’ Hurdle on Thursday was the week’s highlight.
He said: “We finished strong which was great. You never know how you are going to get on as it is very competitive here. You are hoping to get a winner or two and it was nice to get off the board on Wednesday night.
“The Stayers’ Hurdle was a lovely race to win and to finish off with the Martin Pipe was great and we topped it off winning the Mares’ Chase. It has been wonderful. Any time you get a winner, they are really precious and they were all very special in fairness.”
On Thursday, the raiding party once more emerged victorious in the annual British-Irish trainers’ competition known as the Prestbury Cup.
The Irish handlers won 18 matches in the meeting, while the British team won 10, which was the same as what happened in 2022.
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