The country's latest horseracing star received a hero's welcome home this evening when Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs was greeted by crowds in County Carlow.
The seven-year-old is trained at Closutton by multiple champion trainer Willie Mullins who was enjoying his third win in the festival blue riband in four seasons, and yet another week as the leading handler at the Cheltenham Festival.
Despite poor weather this evening, a crowd of enthusiastic racing supporters and locals turned out in Leighlinbridge, just a few kilometres from the Mullins stables, to officially welcome Galopin Des Champs home after his success.
It was the French-bred horse's second win at the festival, coming after he was first home in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle in 2021 and fell at the last with the Turner Novices' Chase last year, and the biggest yet for owner Audrey Turley and her family.
"We've been really lucky," Ms Turley said this evening in Leighlinbridge. "It's wonderful to be home with him and he's in great shape. It feels fantastic, we all do, still so excited, on a high."
The Punchestown Festival next month could be next on the agenda for Galopin, she said, although the decision will be "down to Willie" after his recent successes. "It's just a fantastic story, it really is," she said.
"He came from France, he came to Willie's and he trained him up and he didn't win the first two races he ran in and then he took after that and went from strength to strength. It's just been a fantastic story."
The Cheltenham Gold Cup followed a win in the Irish Gold Cup in Leopardstown last month.
