Paul Townend hails 'iron horse' Gaelic Warrior after Gold Cup win

IRON HORSE: Gaelic Warrior and Paul Townend won the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup (Grade 1) for Rich Ricci and Willie Mullins. Pic: Healy Racing Photo.

Paul Townend hailed the Willie Mullins-trained Gaelic Warrior as an “iron horse” after the 5-6 favourite put the icing on a stunning season by winning the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup in scintillating fashion.

A campaign that began with a Punchestown victory over Fact To Fact concluded with another win over the JP McManus-owned nine-year-old at the same venue.

There the similarities end though as while only a neck separated the stablemates in their epic John Durkan battle, the gap was a gaping 26 lengths this time as Gaelic Warrior produced a performance that even eclipsed his dominant Cheltenham Gold Cup triumph last month.

“He's an iron horse,” said Townend, for whom, even by his standards, this has been an extraordinary season.

“It's so hard to dance all the dances he has and put up the performances he has and produce it again today. He's a tank of a horse and the main thing is not to get into a row with him because there'll only be one winner then.”

For Townend, the only cause for concern actually came before the off.

“He went to the start fairly full of himself now and I was a little bit worried when I got down there because in Cheltenham, when I got out of the parade ring, and down towards the start he relaxed whereas today he went down tanking me and I was a little bit worried.

“I probably put more emphasis on settling him today but once he got over a couple of fences, he settled lovely.”

The Cheltenham-Punchestown Gold Cup double has proved beyond many a top horse, including two horses Townend knows very well in Al Boum Photo and Galopin Des Champs.

“It’s so hard [to win both]. Even though Gaelic Warrior was so impressive at Cheltenham, he put in such a huge performance you were wondering would it leave a mark on him but no, he turned up again today.”

That he did. He’s become as reliable as his jockey in that regard.