RIDING or training a Cheltenham Festival winner is a massive achievement, so to have done both, and by the time you’re 31, takes some doing. In the four years since he trained The Shunter to land a £100,000 bonus in the Paddy Power Plate, Emmet Mullins has trained a number of big-race winners, most notably Aintree Grand National hero Noble Yeats.

Since training his first winner in June 2015, Mullins has developed a reputation as a shrewd operator, both in terms of sourcing horses and perfectly executing a plan, often at gambled-on odds. It always seems wrong to rule out one of his horses, and this Cheltenham Festival will be no different, as he could potentially have five runners at Prestbury Park.