Galopin’s one of the best ever

CHAMPION trainer Paul Nicholls reckons the Boodles Gold Cup won by Galopin Des Champs was ‘one of the best you will ever see’.

Nicholls saddled runner-up Bravemansgame but said he could not be disappointed in losing out to the brilliant winner trained by Willie Mullins.

‘It was an end-to-end gallop from the start and two serious horses came to the fore,’ Nicholls said.

‘The best staying chaser in Britain jumped the last fence alongside the best staying chaser in Ireland together.

‘No excuses. We just came up against a very good horse. That was one of the best Gold Cups you will ever see.’

If Galopin Des Champs races again this season, it will be at the Punchestown Festival at the end of April.

Bravemansgame is likely to be given time to get over his exertions, missing next month’s Grand National meeting. ‘He had a hard race and I don’t want to ruin what we have done,’ Nicholls said.

Nicholls thinks he is starting to reap the rewards of investing in young horses to take on the dominant Irish stables.

‘The Irish trainers can buy every top lot at every sale,’ he said. ‘I had two owners with £400,000 to spend at Thursday’s sale at Cheltenham and bid £410,000 on two horses and didn’t get either of them. They went to Gordon Elliott.

‘That is what makes it so hard. No one can say we are not trying.’