“It’s looking good for Willie Mullins as they run around the home turn,” was the call from Jerry Hannon as Kemboy led Melon, with a gap back to Allaho in the Savills Chase.

The Irish Champion trainer afforded a laugh when asked did he feel the same on a press call for the Dublin Racing Festival on Monday.

“I was just thinking, ‘one of them please!'" Mullins said. "I suppose if either of them fell at the last you were going to say it was a case of ‘How far?’ for the other one but it didn’t work out like that in the end. Maybe they didn’t help each other up front but that is the way the race went.”

Funny the way things go because while Willie hoped he was home and hosed with another Savills Chase, Henry de Bromhead had been cursing his luck after the fall of favourite Minella Indo just under two minutes earlier. In the end, the Waterford trainer was punching the air as Darragh O’Keeffe drove his A Plus Tard to the front to deny Mullins.

It was a vintage finish to a vintage renewal and, while this Sunday’s Irish Gold Cup may not have a big quantity of runners, it's take two for four of the five in the field. A Plus Tard isn’t there, but both Kemboy and Melon will provide a solid barometer of his form and for Savills Chase fallers Minella Indo and Delta Work, we should find out what could have been at Christmas.

Tactics-wise, it’s fascinating. When Minella Indo fell in the Savills, just as runners made their way out on the final circuit, he hampered the two runners directly behind him, and that came at a time when the three leaders, Kemboy, Tout Est Permis and Melon, began to turn things up from the front, the result being that they had a gap on their rivals and the Mullins pair took full advantage to an extent.

Melon got very keen, which isn't uncommon for him but so much so he jumped to the front at the 12th fence and continued to travel powerfully for Patrick Mullions. That he was still there with Kemboy jumping the last speaks considerably of the race he ran and it was interesting to hear Mullins’s thoughts on that run with a view towards Sunday’s race.

“I think we’ll probably change tactics with Melon,” he said. “Up to now we’ve been putting cheekpieces on him, the go-faster stripes, trying to get him to be more competitive over two miles and two and a half. So unfortunately for Patrick, the horse took off with him down the back and he ended up taking him on. Patrick didn’t want to disappoint him either and that was the right thing to do.

“I think the way he runs has been a product of us trying to force it with him in the past but I think if we don’t force it on Sunday, he he’ll settle back off the pace and hopefully use his ability over the last two furlongs.

“They (Melon and Kemboy) were on different sides of the track but you’d have to think if we change tactics a bit, it might suit us better and it should be very easy to do that for Melon.”

This was Mullins speaking before declarations, so whether it is more difficult to revert to hold-up tactics with Melon with just four other runners remains to be seen. At the time, to these eyes, he looked by far the horse to take out of the Savills, and the above comments from Mullins are very positive.

Interestingly, Mullins comments on the shorter-priced Kemboy seemed less so. The nine-year-old’s record in Grade 1 chases over the course and distance reads 1422 but the issue for Mullins is the weather and he admitted as much when he said: “I think the real nice ground suits Kemboy more than any other horse.

“I don’t think soft ground would be a worry for Melon, he’s a big horse and he shouldn’t have a problem with it.”

Melon has been a nearly horse for the Joe and Marie Donnelly so far. Now in his fifth season, he has only won three times since joining Mullins but has finished second in two Champion Hurdles and was only beaten a nose by Samcro in last season's Marsh Chase. Perhaps Sunday will be his day.

Indo

It is perhaps a bigger race for Minella Indo who, as of yet, hasn’t really proven himself in top level open company. The form of his two Grade 3 and Grade 2 wins at Wexford and Navan respectively is pretty average or worse for that level and if you go back to the form of his only run in a Grade 1 chase - last season’s RSA Chase - the winner Champ hasn’t run yet and third-placed Allaho hasn’t exactly set the world alight this term.

Indeed the Cheveley Park Stud-owned horse was well held in the Savills Chase in the end and that would surely worry fans of Minella Indo - I am a big one and it worries me!

Delta Work’s record at this course and distance reads 111U, all in Grade 1 chases. It was interesting that Gordon Elliott pinpointed the fact that Jack Kennedy riding him again is a significant factor. Kennedy partnered the Gigginstown horse to both of his Grade 1 wins at the track last season and was denied the chance to keep up a 100% record over the course and distance on him when ruled out for the day by the on-course doctor over Christmas.

On the face of it, Delta Work has achieved very little on both of his starts this season but he always needs his first run of the season and the jumping error that led to him unseating Sean Flanagan can happen to any horse. He should not be underestimated in an excellent race.

It’s somewhat ironic that Mullins’s two in the Irish Gold Cup, run over three miles and a half furlong, are a shorter price for the shorter distance Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, while Monkfish, the Festival Novice Chase favourite, is going the other way trip-wise, coming down to two miles and five furlongs for the Flogas Novice Chase on Sunday.

Such is the tendency of National Hunt fans to look forward, Monkfish is already gathering chatter as a 2022 Gold Cup horse, and it’s not difficult to see why, given he has won his last five.

It was interesting to read Patrick Mullins insight into the Susannah Ricci-owned seven-year-old at the start of the season.

He said: “He’s a horse who improved all the time last season. When I rode him first in his bumper at Punchestown, he kept backing out of any gaps, or anytime there was a squeeze and we ended up a little too far back. Then he got beaten in his first maiden hurdle, but since then every race he has improved and improved and improved.

“What I particularly liked at Cheltenham (Albert Bartlett win) was that when they got tight down to the last and after the last, he put his head down and went through it. He’s maturing and the penny is starting to drop.

“You need a horse that understands racing. That’s what Hurricane Fly and Quevega did, they understood the point to win. I’m not sure Monkfish knew that at the very start but now he does. He’s 16.3hh, he’s really filled into his frame and he’s as exciting a novice chaser as we have in the yard.”

If that didn’t get you excited about the prospects of a horse then nothing will. On Sunday he will renew his rivalry with a similarly exciting Latest Exhibition, who announced himself with victory at this meeting last season, but who currently trails the Mullins horse 2-0.

The champion trainer said: “Monkfish looks a real natural chaser and all the rain that has arrived this week will suit him. It was a good tussle between him and Latest Exhibition the last time; they are two horses with plenty of history together. The more testing ground will suit us better and, given the way he jumps, I don’t think this drop down in trip will bother him.

“It’s a Grade 1, we’ll get a lot of practice and it’s huge prize money. You have to go there.”

DUBLIN RACING FESTIVAL TIPS FROM RONAN GROOME, RYAN McELLIGOTT, DONN McCLEAN & RORY DELARGY IN THE IRISH FIELD NEXT WEEKEND