JUST shows you what a roller coaster ride this game can be. At Punchestown on Tuesday, David Mullins rode the well-fancied Astre De La Cour – the horse that he rode to win the conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle at Aintree – to finish 18th of the 25 runners in the big handicap hurdle. On Wednesday, he rode Oscar Knight in the Martinstown Opportunity Final, and he got brought down at the last flight on the first circuit, suffering a fairly nasty fall.

Then on Thursday before the opener, he was legged up on the Liam Cusack-trained Bog War, a seriously well-backed favourite. A mistake at the final flight when he was duelling with Jonathan Burke on A Sizing Network seemed to end his chance, but he quickly got his horse back on an even keel and drove him forward to get him up by a head.