PLENTY of criticism has been going around of late of the dominance of Willie Mullins. I can understand the criticism on some levels - in that it’s very much a similar look to most days racing. You take out Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Gigginstown and J.P. McManus, National Hunt racing would have a completely different look. It’s exactly because of these however that Irish racing is in the driving seat in the world of racing.

Not very long ago the main complaint in Ireland was that we were losing our promising bumper horses and novices to powerful yards across the water. Fast forward a couple of years, and we have without question the most promising youngsters emerging every year and many of the most promising youngsters being imported from France.