Entrepreneur Greg Turley is in with a great shout of landing the Boodles Gold Cup at the final day of the Cheltenham Festival today with Galopin Des Champs (13/8), which runs under the ownership of his wife Audrey Turley.
Since acquiring the French-bred in November 2000, the couple have had great fun with the 7-year-old jumping star, including a handicap hurdle festival winner in 2021.
Their luck was out at Cheltenham last year when the nag fell at the final fence of the Grade 1 Turners Novices' Chase. Since then Galopin Des Champs has run in three G1 chases and won them all.
Greg Turley and his brothers Niall and Mark were raised in the car rental business in Dublin.
Argus Car Hire was the platform for CarTrawler, now one of the world's leading online car rental suppliers.
In Association with
The Turley family sold CarTrawler to a private equity buyer in 2014, and members of the family have also developed ClonBio Group, whose main activity is manufacturing bioethanol in Hungary.
Mark Turley is the principal in ClonBio, and brothers Niall and Greg are also shareholders and directors.
ClonBio Group increased revenue in 2021 by 25% to €450m and reported a net profit of €111m.
Greg Turley’s principal investment vehicle is RoundTown Investments Ltd, which provides growth equity for technology firms, including cybersecurity specialist Ekco.
In 2021, Turley deployed €14.2m of RoundTown’s capital for various tech investments. The company’s financial assets have an estimated value of €23.7m, according to filed accounts.
Mrs Turley also owns Sir Argus, whose name references where the family fortune started. This gelding has won once from seven starts and looks very unlikely to emulate the success of stablemate Galopin Des Champs.
Winning the Boodles Gold Cup is worth £350,000 to the winning owner. Should Galopin deliver as expected by the bookies, Greg Turley (61) will hardly mind if Audrey blows the lot in one of the sponsor’s stores.
Photo: Paul Townend riding Galopin Des Champs (right) clears the last to win the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown in February 2023. (Pic: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)
