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.