THE Savills Chase was the defining race of Christmas 2023, Galopin Des Champs producing a historic performance that many thought was the best chase win at Leopardstown in their memory.

Certainly it looked the best effort in a staying chase at the track in the last 20 years or so.

His margin of victory – 23 lengths – was the largest in either of the two open Grade 1 three-mile chases run at the track in the heart of the jumps season, only Exotic Dancer’s 20-length win in the same race in 2008 coming close.

It was an atypical performance in these races as there is something about the chase track that seems to produce tight finishes; there have been 42 of these top staying chases run at Leopardstown since 2003 and 12 of them have been won by less than a length, many of them thrillers like Tidal Bay winning the Lexus by a head in 2012 or an 11yo Beef Or Salmon overwhelming The Listener late in the 2007 Hennessy.

Galopin Des Champs won this race with a remarkable burst of speed for the backend of a staying chase; basically all of his margin of victory came from the turn-in while he was the fastest of any chaser over the last three days of the meeting (after the ground turned softer) from the third last despite some fast two milers also running on those cards.

There can be little doubt that if this version of Galopin Des Champs turns up in the Gold Cup, he will win, and prices the right side of even money look good.

Caveats

However, there are some caveats about his performance, and perhaps more importantly, his ability to replicate it.

He seemed to have track bias in his favour as he raced around the outer throughout, as did the second and third. Of the seven chases run over the last three days of the Christmas meeting, six were won by horses that raced towards the outside, the exception coming in a five-runner beginners’ chase.

There is also the possibility that Galopin Des Champs is a better horse at Leopardstown than at Cheltenham. Certainly, he has jumped better on his runs over fences at Leopardstown.

His fall at the last in the 2022 Turners may well have been a freak event but he had made mistakes prior to that while his Gold Cup win last season was littered with minor errors.

Connections, led by Paul Townend, opted to change tactics here and he was ridden more forward than he has been of late. Since his novice season, the aim had been to get him to settle and take a lead but here a different approach was taken to spark him and it worked in fine style but will he now need to be ridden that way in the Gold Cup?

Irish Grade 1 chases tend to draw single-figure fields, but the Gold Cup has drawn a field size of at least 11 in each year since 2017 and there is chance that a British-trained rival or two will want to take him on.

Perhaps most of all is the concern that his peak effort will have taken something out of him. Racing Post Ratings had his run on par with his Gold Cup win while Timeform rated it 2lbs ahead of the Cheltenham win and the last time he peaked, it took him two runs to come back to himself.

Different

Last season was all about building to the Gold Cup, but this season has been different, and this race was a change of plan as after the John Durkan his trainer had mentioned the Irish Gold Cup as his next target.

Maybe he will still turn up at the DRF which would add to the meeting but some time off after this might be beneficial as while his peak is the highest of the current group of staying chasers, he may take time to recover from this.

As for the vanquished runners in the Savills, Gordon Elliott was of the view that Gerri Colombe was not at his best and I tend to agree. Capodanno looked good at times in his novice season but the way he closed down Gerri Colombe late suggests all was not right with him.

It was his first run at Leopardstown and perhaps the track was not for him, but one positive is that it may get Elliott to run his star chaser again before Cheltenham.

Gerri Colombe had five runs in 2022/23 and got better with each and looks the sort that thrives on racing so the more runs could be the better.

The juvenile hurdle scene now springs into life

BURDETT Road may have missed Christmas due to testing ground at Chepstow, but the juvenile hurdle scene sprang to life in Ireland over the last week and a half, with Willie Mullins a key to the development.

Mullins had three well-fancied runners in maiden hurdles for juveniles with two of them winning, Ethical Diamond who took in the most high-profile race at Leopardstown disappointing and now in catch-up mode.

Bunting was an easy winner at Limerick on St. Stephen’s Day though his going there might suggest a preference for soft ground while Storm Heart was an impressive winner of the maiden hurdle at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve, quickening up sharply in the straight to clear away by 22 lengths.

That race has a better record of producing talented horses than about any juvenile maiden hurdle in the calendar, Vauban getting beaten in it in 2021 and a number of good recent winners like Rivere D’Etel and Unaccompanied.

That said, the apparent quality of those performances is already well-represented in the Triumph Hurdle market, and I would be reluctant to dismiss the proven graded form of the Mercedes-Benz South Dublin Juvenile Hurdle run on December 26th.

Backed up

In that race Kala Conti and Nurburgring backed up their big performances at Fairyhouse in a vastly different type of contest. The Fairyhouse race, in which they pulled 18 lengths clear of the third, was strongly run on testing ground and developed into a battle in the straight whereas this race was run at a much steadier gallop and produced by far the slowest time of the four two-mile hurdle races on the card.

Impressive winner

That sort of pace was unlikely to have suited either and meant an impressive winner was unlikely, but both coped fine with the different circumstances.

Kala Conti looked the Elliott second string to Mighty Bandit on the early betting, but the show brought them closer together and while she was well-positioned near the lead, she travelled well and always seemed to be holding the runner-up.

Nurburgring had a penalty to contend with here and did not get as clean a run through the race as Kala Conti, tight for room early in the straight, but he finished in the manner of one that would be suited by a stiffer test which the Triumph Hurdle will likely be.

Those comments also apply to Kala Conti and while there are others in the Cheltenham race that have potential, odds of around 16/1 the pair make some appeal, especially with both their trainers having a good record in the race.

PAUL Townend had five rides over fences during the last three days of the Christmas meeting at Leopardstown, the ground having softened markedly by that point, and he wanted to be on the outside of the course on them all, as did many of the other Willie Mullins-trained runners in chases.

There were seven chases across those three meetings and six of them were won by horses that took a wide route, the sole exception being Fact To File on the 28th which in itself makes him interesting without allowing for other factors.

But there are other positives with him, not least a notably fast time here and the fact Willie Mullins gave his potential as a chaser a ringing endorsement by opting to miss a hurdling career.

It is not to say that those winners that raced on the outer of the track will not prove the best horses in their respective races, but it may be worth forgiving those that did their running on the worst of the ground.

Five of the first six in the Paddy Power raced on the outer for much of the race, the exception being the fourth James Du Berlais; he may have finished his race off the rail, but he was hard against it for much of the three miles.

Elsewhere in that race, the likes of Diol Ker (put in his best jumping performance since joining this yard), Watch House Cross (again appeared stretched by this trip) and Macs Charm raced more towards the inner. The last-named is trained by Colm Murphy who is without winner in a while, but he had a few horses run well at big prices over Christmas and Macs Charm has long looked a Thyestes type, his figures at Gowran reading:122. Conflated looked the chief sufferer of track position before his fall in the Savills while Flooring Porter – who looked much more tractable racing left-handed – seemed at a disadvantage in the Neville Hotels Novice Chase.

The runner-up in the Adare Manor Opportunity Handicap Chase, Soloman Lane who raced around the inner, may be able to pick up a low-grade race for Martin Hassett if his jumping holds up, too.

IT was strange to wake up on the morning of December 27th and see heavy in the going description at Leopardstown and one had to dig deep into the memory bank to recall such testing ground for a National Hunt meeting at the track.

The last time there was a pure heavy going description for a jumps card at Leopardstown was March 5th 2017 while you had to go back to 2015 for the last time the Christmas meeting was run on such ground.

Even soft-heavy is a rarity; the only time the track had that since 2017 was the second day of the DRF in 2021.

It may thus be worth applying some forgiveness to horses that flopped on the surface with trainers declaring for the middle two days of the meeting on ground vastly different to what transpired, and they may have decided to take the chance because it was Christmas though there were more non-runners as the fixture went on.

The testing surface defined some races, most notably the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle on the second day.

Nine horses took part but there were only five finishers, and it is likely only two of them handled the ground, the winner and runner-up pulling 38 lengths clear of the third.

Never travelling

Caldwell Potter appeals as a horse that would enjoy a testing ground Supreme like the one won by Summerville Boy in 2018 but race favourite Daddy Long Legs is surely better than his pulled-up effort, dropped out last and never travelling or jumping with fluency, his rider accepting defeat early and sparing him a hard race.

Superstar horses can overcome adversity though and that is what Marine Nationale did in winning his first start over fences.

The ground was not as bad on the chase track but even so he is thought better on a sound surface and his seasonal return was simply brilliant.

Making all under a change of tactics and jumping well, he recorded a time four seconds quicker than Dinoblue in the following Grade 1 over the same course and distance, and he is hard to oppose for the Arkle.