HE has dominated Britain over the past few months, so it’s probably only natural that Willie Mullins will do the same this week at one of his favourite stomping grounds on home soil.

His haul of 17 winners at the Punchestown Festival 12 months ago wasn’t quite enough to match his record of 19 winners set in 2021, but the Closutton maestro was still utterly dominant here last year. From 91 runners, he emerged with €1,866,850 in prize money at the 2023 Punchestown Festival – no trainer other than Mullins or Gordon Elliott collected as much prize money for the entire season.

However, the most notable reversal of the entire week came from the champion team in the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup when Galopin Des Champs was downed by Fastorslow to deny him a perfect season. A rematch between the pair this Wednesday promises to be the standout race of the week.

While the same two horses are expected to battle it out 12 months on from their humdinger of 2023, there are certainly different variables to consider for their duel this time.

Campaign change

With a change to the race programme in Ireland meaning the John Durkan Memorial Chase was run earlier this season, Galopin Des Champs has an extra run under his girth than this time last year.

In the lead-up to his dominant Cheltenham display last season, he hadn’t put on the sort of exhibition we’d seen from him in the lead-up to the meeting, like when annihilating his Savills Chase rivals by 23 lengths this term. Fastorslow notably bypassed that Christmas assignment at the 11th hour and couldn’t land a knockout blow on the same rival when runner-up in the Irish Gold Cup in February.

A strict look at the scoreline between Galopin Des Champs and Fastorslow sees the reigning back-to-back Cheltenham Gold Cup star in front by three to two. In the latter’s defence, one of those runs came on his first start over fences in Ireland, and another of those defeats came when unseating seven fences from home at Cheltenham last month - too early to know how he’d have fared.

Additionally, that was Fastorslow’s first run since a wind surgery. Could that procedure have helped to eke out more from Fastorslow from his four-and-a-half-length Irish Gold Cup defeat? Unfortunately, we never got to find out in the Cotswolds. In truth, you will probably struggle to find many with major confidence that Fastorslow can beat Galopin Des Champs when the Cheltenham champion is operating at the very peak of his powers.

Cheltenham exertions

The question remains, however, will we get to see peak Galopin Des Champs in the Punchestown Gold Cup? We didn’t in this race last year when going down by two and a quarter lengths and looking more laboured than he’d appeared all year, for all that he still ran to a high level.

Also factor in an extra race in his locker this season, and the fact he faced a serious test when winning his second consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cup last time on more testing ground than a year earlier. Timeform described the ground as good to soft when he won his first Gold Cup, compared to heavy at the Festival last month.

As a very broad example of the difference in going and type of test the two years were, the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup was won in 6 minutes and 46.1 seconds, compared to seven minutes and 5.4 seconds in 2024, as per Timeform, who described the latest renewal as “a superb test of stamina and jumping, the former to the fore in this running, the time taken over seven minutes for just the third time this century – the runnings won by Bobs Worth and Native River, both thorough stayers.”

If Galopin proved somewhat flat at Punchestown after his Cheltenham exertions last year, he probably at least emptied his tank to the same level this spring. That isn’t ideal for one last hurrah this coming week.

It is certainly a challenge for all trainers trying to extract one last big performance from their horses at Punchestown after peaking them for Cheltenham. Perhaps even more so this year after the Prestbury Park extravaganza was run on more testing ground than you’d typically find at the Festival.

Festival focus

What the numbers do tell us about Grade 1 runners at the Punchestown Festival coming here on their next start after the Cheltenham Festival is that there is one trainer you certainly want on your side for doing the double.

For all trainers not named Willie Mullins at the last five Punchestown Festivals, they have gone nine for 101 in Grade 1 races at the meeting if coming straight here from a run at that season’s Cheltenham Festival – a strike rate of 8.9%. Based on the starting prices of the runners involved, there were roughly five winners less than the market would have expected from the sample.

In comparison, during the same period, Willie Mullins has won with 31 of his 112 runners matching the same criteria – a strike rate of nearly 28%. As for market expectations, he has had almost three more winners than the runners’ odds would have suggested.

From the perspective of rivals taking on Galopin Des Champs, this is probably the most opportune moment to attempt to do so at the end of the season, even though he is clearly the best chaser around. Al Boum Photo is a recent example of a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner being beaten in the Punchestown Gold Cup, and others have placed in the race before getting turned over at the Kildare fixture, including Cheltenham seconds Minella Indo (2022), Djakadam (2015 and 2016), On His Own (2014) and Denman (2010), while Kauto Star was pulled up here after his Cheltenham third to Long Run in 2011.

With so many factors in the mix - and a potentially strong supporting cast of challengers – Galopin Des Champs will take another step towards being one of the modern greats if conquering them all again next week.