THIS has been a special week for two of racing’s gentlemen.

Nicky Henderson sent Altior out to win the Champion Chase on Wednesday and what an appropriate race it was for the Lambourn trainer to record his 60th Cheltenham Festival victory as a trainer.

This landmark achievement rested on his shoulders for just a short time as he was joined on that number a day later by Willie Mullins, and hours later the master of Closutton went one better when Laurina was a runaway winner of the Grade 2 mares’ hurdle.

These numbers are quite staggering and both men are some distance ahead of the next best trainer on the list, Paul Nicholls.

It is interesting to note that Nicky Henderson recorded his first Cheltenham Festival winner in 1985, exactly a decade before Willie Mullins sent out his first winner.

In terms of Irish trainers, Gordon Elliott is well on his way to Cheltenham immortality based on the fact that his first winner at the Festival only came in 2011 and he has leap-frogged Edward O’Grady to now lie behind Willie Mullins, Tom Dreaper and Vincent O’Brien and become the fourth most successful handler from Ireland.

TOURIST ATTRACTION

Willie Mullins enjoyed his first Cheltenham Festival win with Tourist Attraction in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 1995 and won the Weatherbys Champion Bumper for the next three years with Wither Or Which, Florida Pearl and Alexander Banquet. He even failed to saddle a winner at the Festivals in 1999, 2001, 2003 and 2006!

His victories in the three main championship races have come courtesy of Hurricane Fly (Champion Hurdle 2011 and 2013), Faugheen (Champion Hurdle 2015) and Annie Power (Champion Hurdle 2016). He has yet to win the Champion Chase or the Gold Cup.

Willie Mullins’ comment on achieving his landmark 61st success was enlightening. “It’s unbelievable. When you start training you hope for one winner here – that is the greatest aspiration that most Irish trainers have. This isn’t something we ever dreamt of because we thought we couldn’t do it with a base in Ireland.” Now Willie, Gordon, Henry, Jessica and others are proving otherwise.

Nicky Henderson’s first Cheltenham Festival win was in the 1985 Champion Hurdle with See You Then and he has now won that race seven times. See You Then captured it again in 1986 and 1987, before Punjabi (2009) and Binocular (2010) added to the tally. Now Buveur D’Air is a dual winner, in 2017 and this week.

CHAMPION CHASE

Henderson’s record in the Champion Chase is also impressive and Altior provided him with his fifth winner of the two-mile showpiece. That sequence started with Remittance Man in 1992, was followed two decades later by Finian’s Rainbow in 2012 and then Sprinter Sacre provided two memorable successes in 2013 and 2016.

Gold Cup successes for Long Run in 2011 and Bobs Worth two years later have meant that Henderson has recorded multiple victories in all three centrepiece races.

Gordon Elliott’s Tiger Roll’s victory in the Triumph Hurdle in 2014 was the trainer’s first Grade 1 win at the Festival, though his fourth in all. Two years later he was to reach another pinnacle when Don Cossack triumphed in the Gold Cup.

JOCKEYS

In terms of jockeys, Ruby Walsh (who bounded past me on crutches at the races on Thursday evening) stands tall on that list and is some way clear of Barry Geraghty on that roll of honour. A similar sort of lead is also enjoyed by J.P. McManus who had his first two winners at the Festival in 1982 and 1983, both trained by Edward O’Grady. Tommy Ryan rode Mister Donovan to give him his first success, while Frank Codd was on board Bit Of A Skite when he won the National Hunt Chase the following year.

Amazingly, it was to be another eight years before J.P. won again at the Festival, Danny Connors being successful for Jonjo O’Neill and jockey Mark Dwyer.

The only owner likely to challenge the McManus dominance is Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Stud. Gigginstown had six winners this year, though is some distance still in arrears. O’Leary started at the top in Cheltenham terms, winning the 2006 Gold Cup with War Of Attrition, trained by Mouse Morris and ridden by Conor O’Dwyer. He then had to wait three years until he experienced the winners’ enclosure again with Weapon’s Amnesty.