Darren Norris: Galopin Des Champs will show class to make Gold Cup history

And now he returns to Cheltenham, seeking to become only the fifth horse in history – after Best Mate, Arkle, Cottage Rake, and Golden Miller – to win the Gold Cup three times or more.

He returns having already completed one Gold Cup hat-trick, the Irish version having been bagged for a third time at his beloved Leopardstown last month where Fact To File was swatted aside for a second time this season.

He returns to face a line-up that looks inferior to the one he faced in 2023 and 2024, a line-up that – for one reason or another – doesn’t include Fact To File, Punchestown tormentor Fastorslow, Spillane’s Tower, Gerri Colombe or Grey Dawning, perhaps the most talented staying chaser currently in training in Britain.

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It does, however, include Banbridge and the King George hero looks the one horse in the line-up who might be able to give Galopin Des Champs a race. That’s assuming his stamina lasts home and that’s an unknown with the Joseph O’Brien-trained nine-year-old.

What’s certain is he’ll have to get every inch of the trip to trouble Galopin Des Champs as Willie Mullins’ charge certainly won’t be found wanting in that department. He’s rarely found wanting in any department. That’s what makes him great. That’s why he’ll make history.

Elsewhere on Gold Cup day, Lulamba gets the tentative vote to get the better of East India Dock in the JCB Triumph Hurdle. East India Dock is unbeaten in three starts this season and the fact two of those wins have come at Cheltenham is an obvious positive for the James Owen-trained horse.

A brilliant jumper with a great attitude, he’ll take passing but there was a real swagger to Lulamba’s victory at Ascot on his first start for Nicky Henderson and he can give the Seven Barrows team a timely boost after Constitution Hill and Jonbon fluffed their lines earlier this week.

The Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle has produced only one single-digit winner in the last decade, an obvious negative for market leader The Big Westerner.

Two of interest double-figure prices are the John McConnell-trained Intense Approach and Fishery Lane, one of six in the race for Willie Mullins.

At 16-1, Intense Approach appeals more given he is battle-hardened having run nine timed over hurdles, ticks the course box having won at Cheltenham in October, and has shown admirable consistency having finished first or second in each of his last six starts.

Fishery Lane finished fifth in last year’s Champion Bumper and returns to Cheltenham on the back of a maiden hurdle win at Fairyhouse in January where he shaped like a horse who will improve for the step up in trip.

Should that prove the case, he should outrun odds of 25-1.

Willie Mullins has won three of the last five renewals of the William Hill County Handicap Hurdle, a record that can be enhanced by Kargese.

The five-year-old kept top company last season, finishing second to Majborough in the Triumph Hurdle and Sir Gino at Aintree in between Grade One wins at Leopardstown and Punchestown.

A strong-travelling mare, Kargese ran with the choke out at Ascot on her only run this season but she’s far better than that and this challenge should really play to her strengths.

Team Closutton should also collect in the Mrs Paddy Power Mares' Chase where last year’s runner-up Dinoblue is fancied to go one better.

And if French import Kopeck De Mee is as well-treated as the hype machine suggests, his rivals will be playing for second place in the Festival finale, the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle.

Willitgoahead, a pre-Festival purchase from Noel and Valerie Moran now trained by Gordon Eliott, is narrowly preferred to Angels Dawn in the St James's Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters' Chase.