Martin (again) had the solution to the puzzle wrapped in an enigma

Tony Martin had already got this job done three times in the last eight years.

Galway senior hurling manager Henry Shefflin was among the 23,136 attendance on the fourth day of the Festival yesterday. Picture: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho

It was a puzzle wrapped in an enigma. An unknowable, unbreakable code. The great and the good of the Irish game had stuck their noses in the bottle that was the Guinness Galway Hurdle all week, swished it around their mouths for flavours and scents, and still couldn’t come up with a definitive take.

Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott had served mobilisation papers for their usual battalions - the Closutton trainer bringing no little momentum from the meet and a history of success in this race to the table - but he wasn’t the only man with a Midas touch in the continent’s richest handicap.