Louis Moreau Gottschalk's Tournament Galop has its origins in Gottschalk's conquest of the Spanish Peninsula. Gottschalk toured there starting in September 1851, against the advice of Spanish authorities and of Gottschalk's own management. At the time, hostilities were at a peak between Spain and the United States, and as an American citizen, Gottschalk's possible fate might have included spending some time in a Spanish prison, along with other ill-fated Americans who were already held hostage. Gottschalk patiently bided his time, and won an audience with the Spanish royal family in November. The cessation of the cold war between Spain and the United States ended in early December, which allowed Gottschalk to go ahead with a series of public concerts.

The Tournament Galop was first heard at a Gottschalk concert held in Madrid on December 13, 1851. Gottschalk was aware that the Spanish audiences were notoriously difficult to please, and he needed a showpiece that would help break the ice. The Tournament Galop is a pleasant, but not great, musical work, and its composer did not see fit to assign it an opus number. Its galloping figures and fast tempo may indeed remind some of a trip to the horse races. Indeed, the Tournament Galop is one of many Romantic musical works that was inspired by the story of the Ukrainian separatist Jan Mazeppa, who as a youth was lashed to a horse that was sent on a mad gallop that lasted until the horse dropped dead. Some inkling of the character of the Tournament Galop may be gained from its final marking, "Tutta la forza possible, molto animato grandioso."

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