Owner Audrey Turley paid a heartfelt tribute to Galopin Des Champs after the superstar chaser’s retirement was confirmed on Thursday.
The Willie Mullins-trained 10-year-old will go down as one of the most popular National Hunt horses of recent times, with his haul of 12 Grade One victories including back-to-back Cheltenham Gold Cup wins in 2023 and 2024 and a hat-trick of Irish Gold Cups between 2023 and 2025.
He was beaten into third place when bidding for a fourth Irish Gold Cup win in February and that proved to be his final career start as he was ruled out of a sixth appearance at the Cheltenham Festival in March after suffering a setback.
In all Galopin Des Champs won 15 of his 26 career outings and Turley, who ran the black gelding together with her husband, Greg, will always cherish memories that will last a lifetime.
Turley told the Press Association: “We’ve had the best time of our lives, we really have.
“We never thought this would happen to us. We’ve had the most wonderful time.”
When asked if one day stood out above the rest, she said: “Three Irish Gold Cups and the two at Cheltenham, it’s hard to pick out one. Every time it was just a wonderful surprise, it was just magnificent.
“I don’t know if I could say one day, maybe the first Cheltenham Gold Cup as that was just extraordinary – like something out of a dream, the joy it brought.
“The other day was in Leopardstown when he won the third (Irish) Gold Cup. Everybody was singing, ‘ole, ole, ole’ and that just made the hair stand up on the back of our necks.
“People love him and we still have people coming up on Instagram and TikTok saying, ‘we miss him, we miss him’. He was so well loved and deserved to be loved, he was just wonderful.
“Everybody did take to him and he was an unassuming character really when you think of it, but he just loved it – I think he enjoyed every bit of it himself.”
Turley revealed Galopin Des Champs could now embark on a second career in the equestrian sphere, adding: “He’s actually gone over to Ruby Walsh’s family and his daughter Isabelle is going to see what he does in that arena, so we’ll see if something happens out of that.
“They’ll retrain him and see what happens. If he likes it he can do it, if he doesn’t we’ll have another plan and that’s the way it is – it’s all about him, whatever he wants to do.
“He’ll only be 11 next year and he’s still looking fantastic.”
While Galopin Des Champs will never again carry the Turley’s yellow and brown silks, they have several high-class prospects to look forward to including King Rasko Grey, who provided them with another Cheltenham Festival success in last season’s Turners Novices’ Hurdle.
“King Rasko Grey has just come back in from the summer and is looking fantastic, so we have high hopes for him,” Turley added.
“He did so well in Cheltenham obviously and he’s looking like a good horse. He has very big boots to fill, but we won’t have another Galopin – he’s one of a kind, a diamond. We’ll enjoy it whatever happens.”