AT the risk of stating the obvious, Willie Mullins really is operating on a different level when it comes to training winners.

Today Mullins will be crowned champion trainer for the 16th time and there are no signs that his reign is going to end anytime soon.

His record 10 winners at the Cheltenham Festival this year says it all, but let’s look at his statistics on home turf.

Mullins started Punchestown week on 188 winners and €4.3 million in prize money. Before racing on Friday he had already won another nine races, including seven Grade 1s. He is likely to end up very close to the 200-winner mark and exceed €5 million in prize money.

His highest total of winners (212) came in the 2017-‘18 season and the following year he won over €6.2 million in prize money, so this year’s statistics are pretty good, especially when you consider the Cheltenham success.

Some might say “it’s a numbers game” and that Mullins is only on top because he ran over 250 individual horses this season, many of them expensive purchases. However, there is no getting away from his strike-rate percentages.

A whopping 56% (140) of those 250 horses won at least one race this season. His nearest two pursuers – Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead – are both hitting the 37% mark.

Wille Mullins’ overall strike-rate this season is 28% and this is almost double the success level of Elliott and de Bromhead.

Of course Elliott’s totals for this season are distorted as he missed the period from May to early September, during which time his replacement Denise Foster saddled 30 winners. He lost some high-profile owners too but has wasted no time in stocking up on fresh talent.

At the start of this week Elliott had notched up seven Grade 1 winners and of course had four winners on the opening day of the meeting.

On the home front, Henry de Bromhead had a season very similar to the previous one, despite an apparent loss in stable form mid-season. It goes without saying his handling of Honeysuckle and A Plus Tard has been faultless.

Joseph O’Brien and Gavin Cromwell were also ‘line-ball’ for the season, more or less, but it is surprising to see that Noel Meade only had 28 jumps winners this season, down from the mid-40s in the previous two campaigns.

To be fair, Meade had far fewer runners this season, possibly reflecting the growth in numbers of flat racing stock in his yard. The same comment applies to Jessica Harrington.

Further down the table, the big improvers included John Ryan (from 15 winners to 39), Paul Nolan (11 to 28), Peter Fahey (15 to 20), Declan Queally (10 to 20), Philip Rothwell (11 to 19) and Emmet Mullins (12 to 18).

John McConnell, Barry Connell and Padraig Roche also saw a significant uptick in fortunes.