Punchestown Gold Cup: Fastorslow beats favourite Galopin Des Champs to clinch victory

Fastorslow comes through to win the Punchestown Gold Cup by two-and-a-quarter-lengths

Fastorslow was the shock 20-1 winner of the Punchestown Gold Cup with favourite Galopin Des Champs second and Bravemansgame in third.

It was billed as a showdown between the Cheltenham Gold Cup one-two of the Willie Mullins-trained Galopin Des Champs (2-7) and Bravemansgame (10-3).

However, JJ Slevin burst through between the two on Fastorslow in the final strides to secure victory.

Envoi Allen (12-1) was also in mix at the last fence but came in fourth.

It was Paul Nicholls' Bravemansgame who attempted to make all and after seeing off first Envoi Allen and then Galopin Des Champs, Harry Cobden's mount appeared to hold all the aces.

However, it was the Martin Brassil-trained Fastorslow - who at one point seemed outpaced - that came with a storming late run to take top honours, with Galopin Des Champs rallying to claim second from Bravemansgame right on the line.

There had been some doubts about Fastorslow's ability to see out an extended three miles, but he stayed on stoutly to win by two-and-a-quarter-lengths.

"He was going to be carrying top weight in a lot of those handicaps so we just felt we might as well dip our toe in the water and see how much we find," said Brassil.

"There were only five runners and the first two in the betting had hard races in the Gold Cup. If there was a bit of a chink in the armour I thought we could hopefully exploit that. I didn't think we'd win, but I thought we wouldn't be far away.

"JJ is a cool customer, he took the shortest way around and the horse jumped well, everything fell into place."