Irishman Willie Mullins dominated the Cheltenham Festival in 2024 to become Champion Trainer in the UK and Ireland. The leading trainer looks set to head into the latest renewal of the most significant meeting of the season with another strong team headed by Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs.
Mullins holds the record for the most victories at the Cheltenham Festival, with 103 triumphs. He looks set to extend that record this year, as he has multiple strong entries across the four days.
Galopin Des Champs On Course for Gold Cup Defense
The Irish trainer has won the Gold Cup four times in the last six years. Galopin Des Champs has been responsible for two of those victories. He goes into the feature race looking to complete a hat trick, and he is the warm favourite, at -188, in the Cheltenham 2025 odds.
After an impressive victory in the Irish Gold Cup, the star chaser will likely be one of the leading horse racing betting tips for the Cheltenham Festival this year. He showed in 2023 and 2024 that he relishes the 3m2f distance at the Gloucestershire-based racecourse.
Only one horse since 2000 has won the Gold Cup three times, and that was Best Mate, who completed the feat in 2004. Galopin Des Champs can match that achievement and cement his place as one of history’s greatest 3m chasers.
Fact To File the One to Beat in Ryanair Chase
Grade One winning chaser Fact To File has been beaten on his last two appearances by Galopin Des Champs, but he may be set to avoid his stablemate at the Cheltenham Festival. On day three of the meeting, the eight-year-old enters the Ryanair Chase, one of the championship races.
Fact To File produced his best performance of the season in the John Durkan Memorial Chase at Punchestown Racecourse in November. That triumph came over a distance of 2m3½f, so he has shown the speed to shine over trips below 3m.
Image by Jean Louis Tosque from Pixabay
With last year’s champion, Protektorat, King George VI Chase winner and runner-up, Banbridge and Il Est Francais in the field, the Ryanair Chase looks set to be one of the best races at the meeting.
Kopek Des Bordes Gets Week Underway for Mullins
The opening race of the 2025 Cheltenham Festival is the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. It is a contest that Mullins has had a lot of success in throughout his career. He holds the record for the most wins as a trainer, with nine triumphs. He will have a great chance of extending that record this year with Kopek Des Bordes, who is regarded as one of his leading novices in Ireland.
On his last start, Mullins’ hurdler prevailed in the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival. He won that Grade One contest by 13 lengths in the performance of the season so far in the 2m novice hurdles division.
If Kopek Des Bordes can win this year’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, it will give the Closutton Stables team a big confidence boost ahead of the rest of the meeting.
Mullins is set to confirm his Cheltenham Festival declarations for the meeting on 9 March.