HISTORY beckons. Even by his own ridiculously high standards, this spring has surely gone above and beyond any expectations Willie Mullins might have had coming into this key window of the season.

Since February 1st, Mullins has won a staggering 21 Grade 1s between Britain and Ireland, including the clean sweep of all eight top-level events at the Dublin Racing Festival.

A nine-timer at the Cheltenham Festival helped him break into triple-figures for winners at the biggest National Hunt meeting of all, and an across-the-card seven-timer on Easter Sunday saw him set a new record for most winners trained in a single Irish National Hunt season.

Today at Sandown, however, all revolves around how matters have played out away from home for Mullins.

Having been priced up at 16/1 in early March to be crowned champion trainer in Britain for the first time in his career, he is now 1/100 with the Betfair Sportsbook to achieve the feat this afternoon. No Irish-based trainer has managed the achievement since the legendary Vincent O’Brien pulled off the feat in the 1953-54 British National Hunt season.

Top ammunition

Despite already being roughly £175,000 in front of 20/1 title challenger Dan Skelton, as of yesterday morning, Mullins is still rolling plenty of heavy artillery into the final meeting of the campaign at Sandown today.

El Fabiolo swerves the Punchestown Festival for a crack at the Grade 1 bet365 Celebration Chase (3.00), where the latest instalment in his rivalry with Jonbon rates the race of the weekend.

“It is a mouthwatering clash,” Paul Townend told his Ladbrokes-sponsored blog.

“El Fabiolo only jumped a couple of fences at Cheltenham and made a bad mistake, so I pulled him up. He was sore enough after it, but he seems 100% now. His work has been good since.

“This is a big clash again; they have had plenty of clashes so far. Jonbon missed Cheltenham but went to Aintree and won. He had a hard enough race there, so we are probably coming into this as the fresher horse. If we can do things right, I think we can beat Jonbon like we did in the Arkle last year.

“If the real El Fabiolo turns up, then I can’t see us being beaten but there is very little between them.”

Easy Game needs to bounce back to his old form to be a major player in the Grade 2 bet365 Oaksey Chase (2.25), but there are three lively Closutton challengers in the £170,000 bet365 Gold Cup Handicap Chase (3.35).

Golden hopes

Townend has opted to ride Irish Grand National seventh Nick Rockett over Minella Cocooner (third in the same event last time) and Topham Handicap Chase fifth Aime Desjy.

“Nick Rockett ran well enough at Fairyhouse and got tired up the straight - I think being back on a sounder surface will be a help to him,” Townend noted.

Gold Dancer and Sa Majeste will try to end the British season on a Mullins winner in the concluding handicap hurdle (5.20), though Townend views Impaire Et Passe as his strongest chance of the day in the Grade 2 bet365 Select Hurdle (4.10), taking on rivals such as Langer Dan, Ballyadam, Sir Gerhard and Brewin’upastorm.

“I will be playing my cards a little bit later [than at Aintree],” said the reigning champion jockey.

“I thought he was going to win well and pulled up a little bit with the noise at the track but I thought he was the best horse and can beat these all again. Langer Dan is so consistent, but I hope we have the touch of class. He is my best ride on form.”