IN order to have a great duel, you need two protagonists, and Gordon Elliott has obviously had a phenomenal season. It is only two years ago that Willie Mullins’ position at the top of the trainers’ list looked assured for as far into the future as we could envisage. Then Elliott made the quantum leap from young pretender to genuine title challenger.

For the last two seasons now, Gordon Elliott has led the Irish National Hunt trainers’ championship going into the final week of the year. He couldn’t withstand the champion’s Punchestown surge last year but the fact that he has been able to get so close is massive. And that’s just in Ireland.

Remember that Elliott trained the winners of eight races at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival, including the Ballymore Hurdle, the JLT Chase and the Triumph Hurdle. He has had 12 Grade 1 wins this season, including three on that memorable day at Fairyhouse in December when he had three. He has been leading trainer at Cheltenham now for the last two years. Add all of that to his Grand National double, General Principle in the Irish Grand National, Tiger Roll in the Grand National.

Elliott will be disappointed this morning, that’s for sure, that the title appears to have moved out of his reach. He hasn’t tried to hide the magnitude of his desire to be champion. Even so, he and his team can look back with pride on a remarkable season.