THE battle between Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott for the 2016/17 National Hunt trainers’ championship has been a fascinating sub-plot not only to the Punchestown Festival, but to the entire season.

Even when Elliott was winning all those big staying handicap chases, the Galway Plate and the Munster National and the Kerry National and the Troytown Chase, there was always the feeling that Mullins would catch him. The bookmakers still had Mullins as favourite, and every time Elliott was asked if he could win it, he replied with his stock answer: no chance.