Fact To File
For readers unfamiliar with the name, Fact To File is an eight-year-old gelding, owned by John McManus and trained by Willie Mullins, who was briefly promoted to favouritism for the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup after beating the reigning champion Galopin Des Champs, also trained by Mullins, into third place in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase on November 24, 2024. However, when the pair met again in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown on December 28, 2024, Galopin Des Champs not only reversed the Punchestown form to the tune of ten and a quarter lengths, but did so emphatically, making all the running and drawing clear on the run-in to win going away.
Nevertheless, despite that reverse, at the time of writing Fact To File remains a top-priced 4.1 second favourite for the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup. The son of Poliglote, who has still had only six starts over regulation fences, was a ready, three-and-three-quarter-length winner of the Broadway Novices’ Chase, over three miles and half a furlong, at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival and is currently outright 4/1 favourite for the 2025 Ryanair Chase, back over the intermediate distance o two miles and four and a half furlongs.
Fact To File is currently rated 170+ by Timeform, 9lb inferior to Galopin Des Champs, with the inference that he may be better yet. For all that Willie Mullins has said that “Galopin Des Champs wouldn’t be seen at his best” over the two-and-a-half-mile trip in the John Durkan, McManus certainly has an embarrassment of riches in the staying chasing division, with the likes of Fact To File, Spillane’s Tower and Inothwayurthnkin at his disposal. Tony Mullins, brother of Willie, has already said of Fact To File, “…J.P. [McManus] has never owned one like this and he’s owned a lot of good horses”, so it will be fascinating to see what the future holds for the young pretender.