IT is a fair bet that Willie Mullins was satisfied with the result of the StanJames.com International Hurdle at Cheltenham last Saturday, even though his representative, Sempre Medici, came off second-best to the up-and-coming four-year-old Old Guard.

Sempre Medici was not considered to be in the same class as Mullins’ reigning champion hurdle Faugheen, nor probably as the same trainer’s Nichols Canyon and Arctic Fire, and yet he had just nearly won one of Britain’s major trials for the big race itself.