Two-Time Gold Cup Winner Galopin Des Champs Ruled Out of 2026 Cheltenham

Willie Mullins confirmed on Friday that Galopin Des Champs has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2026 season and will miss the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup and other spring festivals. “Unfortunately Galopin Des Champs has been ruled out for the rest of the season. After working very well on Thursday morning he wasn’t right on Friday morning and will miss the Gold Cup and the other spring festivals,” Mullins said, a decision that closes the door on the gelding’s attempt to secure a historic third consecutive Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Galopin Des Champs, a 10-year-old gelding owned by Audrey Turley and normally ridden by Paul Townend, won the Gold Cup in 2023 by seven lengths over Bravemansgame and defended the title in 2024 with a three-and-a-half-length victory over Gerri Colombe. The Wins at Prestbury Park cemented the horse’s status among recent staying chasers, and his team had been planning a campaign that raised the possibility of a rare three-peat.

Form this season had shown signs of vulnerability. In two starts in 2026 the gelding finished third on both occasions, first on his reappearance in the Savills Chase and most recently beaten by stablemate Fact To File in the Irish Gold Cup. A year earlier he had finished second to Inothewayurthinkin when attempting to make the 2025 Gold Cup a personal hat-trick, so Mullins’ announcement now ends consecutive-season title ambitions dating back to 2023 and 2024.

The ruling prompted immediate reaction from figures who have followed the horse’s rise. Barry Geraghty praised Galopin Des Champs’ class and reflected on what a third win would have meant: “He's an absolutely brilliant horse. He's won good Gold Cups and has won them with authority as well... If the same Galopin Des Champs turns up this year, he's going to be very hard to beat. He'll already be remembered as a high-class winner of the Gold Cup, as he's already in an elite club having retained it, but a third in a row would put him into a very select category of greats.”

Stable groom Adam Connolly, who has overseen the gelding at Mullins’ yard, underlined the horse’s personality and how success changes him: “The more he wins, the more bigger he gets in himself... You'll be trying to wash him off and he'll be kicking and biting at you. And as the season goes on, he gets a bit bigger and he knows anyway.” The yard has also been noted for bringing a red football as a purported lucky charm for the horse during festival weeks.

Galopin Des Champs’ career arc had earlier included a Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle win at Cheltenham in 2021 as a five-year-old and a fall in the 2022 Golden Miller Novices’ Chase, illustrating a trajectory that moved from prospect to dual Gold Cup winner. Mullins, 68, who celebrated a century of winners last year and remains one of racing’s most successful trainers, also knows well the difficulty of a hat-trick after previous attempts with Al Boum Photo fell short.

The immediate practical questions remain unanswered: the stable has not released a formal veterinary diagnosis beyond Mullins’ description that the horse “wasn’t right,” and neither owner Audrey Turley nor regular rider Paul Townend has issued a public reaction. Mullins’ ruling on Friday, March 7, 2026, cancels any plans for spring targets including the previously speculated Aintree outing, and leaves Galopin Des Champs’ long-term plans, recovery timetable, and potential return unannounced.