Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup (Grade 1)

REVENGE is a dish best served at Punchestown for Fastorslow, who again proved a massive thorn in the side of Galopin Des Champs to make it back-to-back wins in the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup.

Despite the reigning dual Cheltenham Gold Cup hero being sent to post the 1/2 favourite to win this €300,000 prize for the first time, there certainly wasn’t anywhere near the same surprise factor about the result as 12 months earlier when Fastorslow struck at 20/1.

This time around, Martin Brassil’s stable star was only 7/2 to gain compensation for his unseat seven fences from home at Cheltenham last time and he appeared much sharper on the whole than Galopin Des Champs, who had a busier season than his previous campaign and faced a considerably stiffer test of stamina in the Cotswolds 47 days earlier.

Racing with enthusiasm under J.J. Slevin, Sean and Bernardine Mulryan’s eight-year-old brought his ‘A’ game to ask the highest-rated chaser training all sorts of difficult questions.

To his immense credit, Galopin Des Champs did battle and stick to his task, but Fastorslow never looked like relinquishing an advantage that ended up being a length and a quarter at the line. Hewick posted a bold effort in third - a massive step forward from his previous Liverpool Hurdle sixth.

“He’s an absolute monster,” beamed Slevin, who was winning the feature Grade 1 on each of the first two days of the Punchestown Festival.

“When he’s good, he’s exceptional - and he hasn’t put too many steps astray this season. There wasn’t ever really a moment’s concern. He travelled and jumped brilliantly.

“He was keen for the first mile. I was trying to conserve petrol and cursing myself going along that he was a bit keen. Then he dropped it and was comfortable. It was a monster of a performance. He’s so good, it’s unbelievable.”

Asked if this was the best Fastorslow has ever felt, Slevin replied: “By a fair way. I haven’t ridden a horse like him at all. He’s an absolute animal.”

He added: “I’ve been very lucky this season and today lessens the Cheltenham incident. Being honest, he jumped the fence, his head disappeared and the next thing I was getting off the ground. That was it. I try not to think about it too much. We’ll enjoy today, it’s great.”

When Galopin Des Champs won the Cheltenham Gold Cup this spring, he did so in a time of seven minutes and 5.4 seconds, which - according to Timeform - was only the third time this century the Blue Riband event has taken over seven minutes to run.

As a very loose comparison, he won the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup in 6 minutes and 46.1 seconds.

Paul Townend felt those exertions had a key factor in the favourite’s performance, similar to a year earlier when runner-up to Fastorslow.

“I actually think he ran well,” said Townend. “The ground dried out and this is Fastorslow’s track here, isn’t it? Maybe we just lacked a little bit of zip in the race when we needed it.

“I missed a few beats at the jumps, compared to how he was winging around Cheltenham. He’s run with credit. Fair play to winning connections and J.J.

“Galopin stayed going to the death. It’s just so hard to come back from Cheltenham to here. We’ll be looking forward to the rematch next season.”

Galopin Des Champs was pushed out to 4/1 (from 3/1) for next year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, while Fastorslow was cut to 7/1 (from 20/1).