“MAYBE it just could be Gordon’s year,” was a sentence overheard in the Fairyhouse grandstand, just as Riviere D’etel motored up the short run-in, having comfortably dispensed of the odds-on Willie Mullins-trained Allegorie De Vassey in a Grade 2 mares’ chase on New Year’s Day.

It’s a big ‘maybe’, probably too big, but you can see where the utterance came from. Speaking subjectively, it felt like that sort of result wouldn’t have happened last season.

Less subjectively, it felt like the rounding up of a very good Christmas for Elliott’s team, who saw three Grade 1 winners return to Cullentra, among 11 winners in all. Notably, the top level victories were achieved by young horses - Found A Fifty (six), Irish Point (five) and Caldwell Potter (five) - which is a nod to Elliott’s current modus operandi of building for the future.

In a review of the 2023 jumps scene, I wrote in these pages pre-Christmas that Willie Mullins had had another fabulous year but his main rival was fighting back and the Christmas period did not deter that notion. The Meathman had 10 Grade 1 winners last season but he already has six on the board now, and he’s now just 29 winners off his Irish total from last season.

With all that said, while Elliott will and should be delighted with his Christmas return, Mullins went up a gear, taking all of the remaining five Grade 1s and the Paddy Power Chase.

That is an excellent return for the champion trainer. He’s a bit like Erling Haaland now in the Premier League, because he’s so good, such success feels normal, when it really shouldn’t.

Platform

It should provide the platform for the Closutton bandwagon to get rolling, just like it usually does at this time of the season. Elliott led by €610,000 before a race was run on St Stephen’s Day, but that gap is down to just €118,000 now, which is the equivalent to a one-point lead at half time in a Munster Championship Hurling match, nothing in it really, and now you feel Mullins has the wind at his back.

Paddy Power make the 17-time champion trainer a 1/7 shot to make it 18 times, and that feels about right. A similar ratio of Grade 1 wins between the two trainers at the Dublin Racing Festival will see Mullins hit the front and it will be hard to see past him then, especially when Punchestown rolls around.

Mullins has dominated proceedings at the finale festival in recent seasons while Elliott has traditionally struggled to maintain the levels of the earlier season - it probably went under the radar a little that he didn’t have one winner at Punchestown last season.

He has left that blip well behind him though, and while this is likely a year or two too soon, so far it has been a big step in the right direction. It’s significant that his three Grade 1 winners over Christmas have come for three of his biggest owners - Robcour, Caldwell Construction and Bective Stud - who are mostly exclusive to him (Robcour have horses elsewhere but none with Mullins).

That is Elliott delivering for the people he needs to deliver for, and such success could prompt further investment.

The key could be Gigginstown. The O’Learys have re-entered the game and while it’s unknown if they will get back to the levels of their heyday period (2012-2019), their output is back on an upward curve with 33 winners so far this term already equal of last season’s total.

The likes of Croke Park, Brighterdaysahead and King Of Kingsfield could well help Elliott along this term but it is perhaps more significant to see the maroon silks prevalent in bumpers again.

They have won eight bumpers from 16 runs this season with the likes of The Enabler, Jalon D’Oudairies and Patter Merchant all exciting prospects for beyond this season.