Slevin convinced Banbridge has a ‘massive’ chance on good ground

Galopin Des Champs, if victorious, will join Arkle, Best Mate and Cottage Rake, as three-time winners of the feature.

Mon, 10 Mar, 2025 - 06:08

Tommy Lyons

The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup focus will be squarely upon Galopin Des Champs who, if victorious, will join Arkle, Best Mate and Cottage Rake, as three-time winners of the feature.

Time may prove it a fruitless task to seek betting interest beyond the prohibitively priced favourite, but there is, at the very least, some new blood on the scene with the potential to make a race of it with Audrey Turley’s horse.

Chief among those new challengers is Banbridge, a horse with unproven stamina but a CV which added a King George when he triumphed by showing tremendous reserves of stamina for the three miles on that admittedly less-demanding Kempton course.

When his regular rider, JJ Slevin, took over from Daryl Jacob as retained rider to Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, he knew there would be days when it would be special and those days when he would be missing out on some plum rides.

Though he would likely never say it publicly, this is the one year — and perhaps the only one — when he will be glad that his new employers will not be represented in the Gold Cup.

That opens the door to him to renew his association with the Joseph O’Brien-trained Banbridge, who was ridden by Paul Townend when overhauling leader Il Est Francais in the King George, and Slevin is expecting a big run from the Ronnie Bartlett-owned nine-year-old.

When he suggests his mount’s chance is ‘massive’ it ought to be taken seriously as he knows better than anyone what it takes to beat Galopin Des Champs. In the Gold Cup favourite’s 15 completed starts over fences, he has been beaten four times, and on three of those occasions, the winner was the Slevin-ridden Fastorslow.

Last year’s Gold Cup was robbed of a potentially pulsating finish as that fellow was travelling strongly until unshipping Slevin at the 16th of the 22 fences. It’s what might have been for the horse and jockey, but the rider makes favourable comparison with Banbridge, though a different type of racer.

“They are quite similar,” said Slevin. “Fastorslow, for me, was a machine. I’ve never experienced anything like him. That last day, in the Punchestown Gold Cup, he won that phenomenally easily.

“Banbridge is probably a bit more deceptive, as he is a lazier racer, maybe. He just keeps doing it, though. Look at his stats: his wins-to-runs strike-rate is pretty high.

“Maybe you don’t get the same sort of feel from him as you get off Fastorslow but once they keep winning you can’t knock them either.

“And I’ve always felt Banbridge hasn’t got the credit he deserves. He was winning over two and a half, back to two miles last season at Punchestown, where he beat the Champion Chase winner, and won a King George this year — that’s phenomenal stuff.”

While he was certainly disappointing at last season’s Festival, finishing a long way back in the Ryanair Chase, conditions were unsuitably soft that day, just as they were when he was a late withdrawal from the Turners Novice Chase at the 2023 Festival.

Given quicker ground, though, Slevin is confident of a bold showing.

“He’d have a massive chance, I believe. And all it takes is one dry day. If it’s a warm Friday, the Gold Cup is later on in the day, and if it’s warm from 11 o’clock, it will be good ground. If that’s the case, he would have a massive chance.

“He won the Martin Pipe at the Festival and won a novice chase in November over two miles there, so he has a good record there.”