WHEN invited to press events, the media gather to hear what the great leader has to say. But there’s a new dimension to everything in the current news climate. BHP Insurances launched their seventh year in sponsoring the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown this week with some of the leading trainers in attendance. It was another chance to get a handle on Willie Mullins’ thoughts on his top horses.

The next day the Racing Post led with a possible meeting of Annie Power and Faugheen in the Champion Hurdle but there was a Donald Trump photograph a few inches away!

What did Willie say again? Sometimes it’s the pauses in between sentences that indicate what’s going on - ideas are being juggled about.

“If we came away from Cheltenham, after finishing second in the Champion Hurdle…?” He left it hanging there. Were the old plans of putting the horse in the race where it had its best chance of winning being abandoned?

But it was the Yorkhill offering that caused a few pricked ears. Yorkhill for the Champion Hurdle - what? FAKE NEWS?

But this wasn’t Trump’s alternative facts but another insight into the master’s mind at work. Six weeks off the festival, nothing is certain, even with Annie Power unfortunately out of the picture, a lot of pieces are still to fit into place. It’s planned to school Yorkhill at Leopardstown before Cheltenham. What if that didn’t go well? Who knows where the Closutton contenders will end up. Willie might keep us guessing but we trust him more than Donald J!