Willie Mullins: 'If you’re not going up in life, you’re going down'

And going up is precisely what the 67-year-old, 17-times Irish champion National Hunt trainer continues to do.

Champion Trainer Willie Mullins facing the media outside his Cheltenham Gold Cup winner's stable Galopin Des Champs.

It makes a degree of sense that the two current powerhouses of Irish National Hunt racing are not entirely in sync as they plan their ways through the season, not necessarily avoiding each other, but picking routes most advantageous to their charges as they build, hopefully, towards the end-of-season festivals.

The two – Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott – lead the trainer’s championship with, respectively, €4.85m and €3.6m in total prize money earned, the latter more than €2m clear of the next most successful trainer and, in terms of winners trained, more than 110 ahead.