With the evenings steadily drawing in, racing fans can look forward to another exciting jumps season with a large number of top-class races on the agenda throughout the winter months.

One name synonymous with this time of year is Willie Mullins and the affable Co Carlow-based trainer has had a fascinating career as a trainer so far.

It's easy to forget that Mullins had a relatively successful career as an amateur jockey before turning his hand to training in 1988. His achievements out of the saddle have far eclipsed anything that went before but he did ride the winner of the Aintree Fox Hunters' Chase in 1983 and he won one of the first runnings of the Cheltenham Bumper on Wither Or Which.

His late father Paddy Mullins trained multiple Cheltenham Festival winners but Willie has taken that to another level and has become a tour de force in the National Hunt game.

In April 2017, he managed to successfully defend his Irish champion trainer title despite plenty of competition - right to the final day of the season - from Gordon Elliott. This made it 11 titles in total and nine on the bounce, a wonderful achievement considering the previous 12 months had been far from straightforward for Mullins.

The previous November one of his stable stars Vautour (pictured below) passed away following a freak accident whilst out training and injuries to Champion Hurdle winning pair Annie Power and Faugheen meant they were both forced to miss the 2017 Cheltenham Festival as well as the remainder of the campaign.

A couple of months earlier Mullins was dealt a body blow when it was announced that Gigginstown House Stud was removing 60 horses from his yard following a disagreement over training fees.

The majority of those horses moved to rival Gordon Elliott.

During the 2012-'13 season, many bookmakers priced up the chances of Mullins firing in 200 winners during the Irish jumps season. He fell agonisingly short, clocking up 193 wins from his 595 runners, but he smashed a number of records in the process.

Mullins achieved similar numbers in the subsequent years, with 185 winner during the 2013-'14 season and 187 during the following 12 months.

Last season it was actually Elliott who trained the highest number of winners (193) though Mullins held the edge in terms of prize money.

Mullins can boast a total of 54 Cheltenham Festival winners to-date - and they include such well-known names as Florida Pearl, Quevega and Hurricane Fly.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup has continued to elude him, however, though he has trained the runner-up on many occasions.

Mullins is also a Grand National and King George winner, while the aforementioned Hurricane Fly holds the world record for highest number of Grade 1 wins at 22.

Racing fans are relishing the return to the racecourse of Faugheen in the coming months. No doubt his price will be short, so punters will be looking for daily enhancements to boost their returns.

Mullins has begun the new season in fine form and his new recruit Total Recall looked a horse to follow when winning the Munster National. The champion trainer will be very hard to beat once again during the 2017-'18 National Hunt season.