I could not see defeat for Fact To File in the King George. I could not see victory for Fact To File in the Irish Gold Cup. Such is life.
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GG Jumps Journal – Jumps Horses & Their Best Trips
When Fact To File readily held Monty’s Star at arm’s length in the 2024 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, I doubt there were many ready to call him a blatant non-stayer over Kempton’s three miles within the space of two years. How quickly a victory is forgotten; that year’s Brown Advisory field was weak enough, but Fact To File galloped serenely up the Cheltenham hill to gain his first win over a 3m trip.
Was it a later win which, counterintuitive as it seems, made us believe he was no staying chaser? Beating Spilane’s Tower, Galopin Des Champs and Fastorslow over 2m4f at Punchestown may well have laid the foundations of our collective thinking that this was a middle distance horse, confirmed to many by his exhilarating pummelling of the Ryanair field last term.
Is any horse, at their heart, a Ryanair horse though? That debate is at the heart of many beliefs that Thursday’s feature chase should cease to exist, banished from whence it came in 2005 to steal away prospective Gold Cup prospects such as Fact To File. After the Irish Gold Cup on Monday, it is easy to see why many would rather it join the old Turners Novices’ Chase (JLT etc.) in the ether.
Last season, Fact To File was second and third to potentially Leopardstown’s greatest ever performer over 3m, and has now beaten him over said course and distance. Until this season, during which Galopin Des Champs appears to have lengthened in tooth, the dual Gold Cup winner was unbeatable in the Savills Chase and Irish Gold Cup. Aside from a late surge by Grangeclare West to deny him second in the latter event in 2025, Galopin Des Champs was the only horse to beat Fact To File in both races last season.
It became evident that Inothewayurthinkin was peaking at the right time for the Gold Cup, enough that Fact To File was redirected to the Ryanair Chase instead. A class horse, he obviously dismantled his rivals that day, but it was no vintage renewal. Then, as if to further confirm racing’s commitment to the barking mad, he was dropped in trip to 2m at Punchestown, despite his bumper form to the contrary, and duly flopped.
GG Jumps Journal – Forgotten Horses of the Last Decade
I saw the name Labaik mentioned for the first time this year on social media recently, which means it’s time to recall him and many others who flew high, perhaps reappeared, then vanished with their legacy. GG Jumps Journal – The Forgotten Horse There are many ways to become the “Forgotten Horse”. For some, it…
Wed 21 Jan 2026All of this is to say that it has taken almost 24 months to arrive back where we started: Fact To File is a horse who should run in a Gold Cup. The mixed signals are buffering, the clouds are clearing, the John Durkan was a mess and Fact To File’s jumping went rarely awry in the King George off a quick pace. It happens and so did his Irish Gold Cup triumph in sumptuous style.
3m2f on Cheltenham’s New Course is different to 3m anywhere else, including the Old Course at Prestbury Park, but the point now has to be to find out if gold is for them. In some cases, we know that about Ryanair Chase winners: Protektorat had been third and fifth in the prior two Gold Cups to his Ryanair win of 2024, Frodon was fifth, maybe past his best, in the 2021 Gold Cup, Cue Card kept falling, Albertas Run, half-a-length form unbeatable in the Ryanair, was a distant Gold Cup ninth in the Kauto Star era. Imperial Commander won both, the only horse to do so.
For others though, we have been denied that knowledge. Allaho won a Punchestown Gold Cup by 14 lengths over 3m, but was confined to the Ryanair, while Balko Des Flos blew hot and cold, but was second in a Savills Chase and a Grand National. He would hardly have wanted for stamina. And Vautour…need we revisit that rock?
We may get a belated opportunity to see Envoi Allen in a Gold Cup this year, but this bona fide staying chaser of the future, at least in his bumper and novice hurdle days, will only realise that ambition at the age of 12 in March. His form over 3m in open company reads 17421U1, hardly figures to dismiss him as a non-stayer and yet only in his likely swansong will we see him tested in the blue riband.
We have been too quick to judge Fact To File, a foible even his connections have been guilty of. He has no Gold Cup entry, but JP McManus can throw a few pennies in to supplement him. Petty change for glory and proof that the Ryanair has its place if I’m wrong.
GG Jumps Journal – Silly Season in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle
The 2026 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle looks very open, but the closer it gets to the Festival, the more unsettling it feels. GG Jumps Journal – The Unsettling Supreme Our comfort blanket is yet to be applied. The Dublin Racing Festival provided it last season when Kopek Des Bordes toyed with his rivals in the Grade…
Wed 14 Jan 2026Tip for the weekend
We will keep this week’s simple on a market discrepancy: of those entered in the Gold Cup (hint JP, take the hint) Jango Baie is the favourite and yet he is not overwhelmingly favourite for the Denman Chase at Newbury on Saturday, in places bigger than Haiti Couleurs. If Nicky Henderson’s star is to confirm that Cheltenham market position, he will want to be winning this even conceding Haiti Couleurs 2lb, and I think he will.