Gold Cup Legend, Galopin Des Champs, Dies Just Five Days After Retirement

Horse racing has lost one of its great modern champions following the death of dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs, just five days after his retirement from racing was announced.

The ten-year-old, trained throughout the best years of his career by Willie Mullins and owned by Greg and Audrey Turley, suffered a severe injury while in a field on Tuesday morning. Despite receiving immediate veterinary attention, the damage could not be repaired.

The news is made all the more difficult by what was supposed to happen next.

Only last week, Willie Mullins announced that Galopin Des Champs had been retired from racing and would begin a second career with Ruby Walsh's daughter Isabelle, with the hope that he could eventually go eventing.

Instead, a horse who had survived the demands of racing at the very highest level has been lost in a freak accident only days into his retirement.

What Happened to Galopin Des Champs?

Ruby Walsh confirmed the news after finding Galopin Des Champs with a serious injury high up on his near front leg.

The horse had been checked several times during the morning, but when Walsh went to collect him for exercise later that day, the injury had become clear. Vets attended immediately and X-rays were taken.

Sadly, they showed what Walsh described as “extensive, unrepairable damage”. Walsh said Galopin Des Champs “could not be saved” and spoke of the effect his death had already had on those closest to him.

His thoughts were particularly with owners Greg, Audrey and Sarah Turley, along with Adam Connolly, who had looked after Galopin Des Champs for much of his racing career.

When his retirement was announced just five days earlier, Mullins had stressed that Galopin Des Champs was retiring as a sound horse. The decision was simply that, at the age of ten, connections felt he could no longer perform at the exceptional level he had set for himself.

A long and happy life away from racing seemed to be waiting for him.

From Handicap Hurdler to Gold Cup Star

It is easy to remember Galopin Des Champs simply as the almost unbeatable staying chaser who became the face of the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

A son of Timos, Galopin Des Champs began his career in France before joining Mullins at Closutton. His first real sign of what was to come in Britain arrived at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, where Sean O'Keeffe rode him to victory in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Handicap Hurdle.

He followed that with his first Grade 1 success in the Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.

Chasing, however, was where Galopin Des Champs became something very special. During the 2021-22 season he quickly established himself among the best novice chasers around, winning Grade 1 races at Leopardstown and Fairyhouse.

There was also one of the most famous defeats of his career when he looked certain to win the 2022 Turners Novices' Chase at Cheltenham before coming down at the final fence. He was around 12 lengths clear of Bob Olinger at the time and appeared to have the race won.

Rather than defining him, the fall became little more than a footnote in what ultimately became an astounding legacy.

Back-to-back Cheltenham Gold Cups

By the following spring Galopin Des Champs had become a staying chaser.

He won the John Durkan at Punchestown before taking his first Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown in February 2023, and then came Cheltenham.

Sent off favourite for the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup, Galopin Des Champs produced the performance that confirmed him as the best staying chaser of his generation. Paul Townend kept him settled before asking him for his effort late on, and he powered clear of Bravemansgame to win by seven lengths.

Twelve months later they did it again. Galopin Des Champs returned to Cheltenham in 2024 with a huge reputation and dealt with the pressure, beating Gerri Colombe by three and a half lengths.

In doing so, he joined a very select group of horses to have won the Gold Cup more than once and became the first since fellow Mullins star Al Boum Photo to win successive renewals.

He was no Cheltenham specialist either, and Leopardstown regularly brought out the best in him. He won three successive Irish Gold Cups from 2023 to 2025 and twice landed the Savills Chase.

His first Savills win, in December 2023, was particularly memorable when he demolished a high-class field, beating Gerri Colombe by 23 lengths in one of the finest performances of his career.

One Last Huge Performance

Galopin Des Champs returned to Cheltenham in 2025 attempting something achieved by very few horses: three Gold Cups in succession. But, it wasn't to be.

He finished six lengths behind Inothewayurthinkin, but even in defeat there was little damage to his reputation. Winning one Gold Cup is hard enough. Winning two and finishing second when attempting a third says plenty about just how good he was.

A month later he reminded everybody of his ability when he finally won the Punchestown Gold Cup, crushing Spillane's Tower by 22 lengths in what proved to be the final victory of his career.

His last appearance came at Leopardstown in February 2026, when he finished third in the Irish Gold Cup behind Fact To File. A subsequent setback ruled him out of Cheltenham and he never raced again.

A Horse Who Meant More Than His Results

His final numbers are outstanding and include winning 15 of his 26 races, including 12 Grade 1s, three Cheltenham Festival races, two Cheltenham Gold Cups, three Irish Gold Cups, two Savills Chases and a Punchestown Gold Cup.

He earned more than £1.9 million in prize-money for connections, but the reaction to his death shows why numbers only tell part of the story.

Willie Mullins called the news “devastating” and described Galopin Des Champs simply as “a legend of a horse.”

Paul Townend, who rode him in all 12 of his Grade 1 victories, called him a “horse of a lifetime” and spoke warmly about how the once-exuberant young chaser had grown into an incredibly calm and dependable horse.

Cheltenham Racecourse also offered its condolences to the Turley family and the Closutton team, saying Galopin Des Champs would be remembered as a true champion.

For racing fans, there will be the two Gold Cups, those huge Leopardstown performances and the sight of Townend in the familiar brown and yellow colours heading towards another Grade 1 victory.

Galopin Des Champs had only just been given the chance to enjoy life after racing, and that is perhaps what makes his death, at only ten years old and just five days into retirement, so terribly sad.