THE trainers’ championship ebbed and flowed during the week, but it ebbed and flowed for just two days really, not five.

Given that Gordon Elliott had a lead of over €520,000 going into the Punchestown Festival, and given that Willie Mullins’ relative strength appeared to be front-loaded, you thought that it was important that the defending champion got off to a good start in order that the sense of competition be maintained. And he did.