MONDAY’s Irish Grand National has long been touted as a deciding factor in the race for the Irish trainer’s championship.

As head to heads go, the Elliott/Mullins factor has been a key component of the National Hunt season and let’s hope it lives up to the climax of last weekend’s Masters. That duel on the final day between golfers Sergio Garcia and England’s “other” Rose was right up there with the finest sporting contests that I have watched.

As the commentator on Sky remarked: “They shouldn’t have commentators tonight at Augusta, they should just put it to music because this is epic.”

The sportsmanship in golf is rightly applauded, and in our top National Hunt trainers we too are lucky to have a sport fronted by so many commendable sportsmen (and women). I thought that Gordon Elliott gave a particularly gracious interview at the end of his successful Cheltenham week when he acknowledged the achievements of Willie Mullins.

The most famous man in the sport is Ruby Walsh, who was a special guest on RTE’s Big Week on the Farm. We had the great jockey on screen beside Cavanman Taz Smith who was attempting to break the world record for number of sausages eaten in one minute.

I was shouting at the television to let Ruby have a go.

In addition to the sausages, my glimpses of the programme gave us births and deaths (lambs and donkeys) and was part presented by one of one of Ireland’s most accomplished current affairs broadcasters Aine Lawlor.

Her adaptability is so remarkable that she introduced a celebrity guest’s attempt to milk a cow by hand with a singalong of Pull, Pull, Pull the Udder One, while jumping up and own with the excitement of a Junior Cert student on receiving her results.

I must admit a slight guilty pleasure about the whole thing.