THIS week’s entries for the novice chases and hurdles at the Festival again demonstrated where the balance of power lies in the National Hunt scene.

In the Supreme Novices’, of the 64 entries, 45 are trained in Ireland. Twenty two of those are in the Willie Mullins yard. Gordon Elliott has five and last year’s winning trainer Henry de Bromhead has six with Workahead and Koktail Divin looking among the front rank of his entries.