YORKHILL’s win at Cheltenham earned rave reviews, while his display in defeat at Fairyhouse had pundits and punters alike shaking their heads in dismay, but it should have been the other way around in a game which is enriched by its characters, and in which we tend to forget that the horse is the only enduring draw.

Willie Mullins’ chaser has character which matches his brilliance, as he showed when pulling himself up in front in winning a couple of Grade 1 novice hurdles last season, and he has a streak of waywardness which arguably deprived him of victory at last year’s Punchestown Festival, and definitively last Sunday, when his tendency to dive left almost carried him off the course.