The two most recent winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup were among the 11 runners for the Grade One Savills Chase at Leopardstown on Sunday but neither could match the strength and resilience of a resurgent Affordale Fury, as Noel Meade’s seven-year-old made his breakthrough at the highest level after an injury-plagued career to date.
Affordale Fury was the 150-1 runner-up in the three-mile Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham in March 2023, but his career since has included breaks of 438 and 241 days and Sunday’s race was just his fifth chase start outside novice company.
It was also his fourth outing since October, though, offering hope that his former fragility may now be behind him, and he set a decent gallop from the off despite persistently jumping to his right.
He appeared to be running out of steam as Galopin Des Champs, the Gold Cup winner in 2023 and 2024 and a five-time Grade One winner at Leopardstown over the Savills Chase’s three-mile trip, took it up at the second-last.
Galopin Des Champs’s familiar finishing kick did not materialise, however, and after another sharp jump to his right at the last, Affordale Fury stayed on again to beat I Am Maximus, the 2024 Grand National winner, by two-and-a-half lengths with Galopin Des Champs next across the line.
Kelso
11.45 The Four Sixes 12.19 Golden Point 12.54 Country Code 1.29 They Want Me 2.04 Cavalier Du Luy 2.39 Speiriuil 3.15 Baratablet
Doncaster
11.50 Maximilian 12.25 Made U Blush 1.00 Doctor Blue 1.35 Fierce Warrior 2.10 Spindleberry 2.45 Rockola Vogue 3.20 Aeroplane Blonde
Newbury
12.05 White Noise 12.40 Act Of Innocence 1.15 Jorebel (nb) 1.50 King’s Threshold 2.22 Castelfort 3.00 No Drama This End 3.35 Newton Tornado
Newcastle
3.10 Percy Willis 3.45 Starryfield 4.15 Popty Ping 4.45 Towerlands 5.15 Monsieur Kodi 5.45 Francesi 6.15 Rooska 6.45 Stroblelight 7.15 Goldmoyne (nap)
Inothewayurthinkin, the 2025 Gold Cup winner for Gavin Cromwell, was last of the nine finishers, having drifted alarmingly in the pre-race betting to a starting price of 13-2.
Meade was the last trainer other than Willie Mullins to win the Irish jumps championship, back in the 2006-07 season, and Affordale Fury was cut to around 12-1 to give his handler a first success in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
“When this fella was second in the Albert Bartlett, we were really looking forward to him as a chaser,” Meade said. “He won his novice chase and then things went wrong on us, and he missed the whole of the next season. He worked the other day and worked the sight out of your eyes, he was unbelievable.”
The Gold Cup market is unusually open after Sunday’s race, with Inothewayurthinkin and Galopin Des Champs top-priced at 6-1 and 7-1 respectively, and Jango Baie (8-1), The Jukebox Man (8-1) and Gaelic Warrior (10-1) – the fourth, first and third home in Friday’s King George VI Chase at Kempton – next in the list.
The shortest-priced favourite for any race at the Cheltenham festival after the first three days of the Christmas programme is Mullins’s Final Demand, who continued his flawless transition from hurdling to chasing with an effortless success in the Grade One Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick.
Final Demand was a creditable third after setting off as the 6-4 favourite for last season’s Baring Bingham Novice Hurdle at the festival but clearly had the physical scope to be better still over fences and scarcely came off the bridle on the way to an eight-length success.
He was immediately cut to around even-money for the Brown Advisory Novice Chase, over three miles, at Cheltenham on 11 March.
