While Rachael Blackmore rightfully stole the headlines with her Gold Cup win on A Plus Tard, make no mistake, this Cheltenham Festival will be remembered as much for a Willie Mullins procession and by Friday afternoon, the chants of “Walking in a Mullins Wonderland” echoed around Prestbury Park.

The Closutton handler sent out a record equalling 10 winners to win his ninth leading trainer award at the festival. His total wins equalled the cumulative total of all British trainers, with a five-timer on the final day proving a sensational return.

Among those 10 wins, Energumene provided him with an elusive Champion Chase title meaning he now has completed the set of feature race wins at the Festival, having won the Champion Hurdle, Stayers’ Hurdle and Gold Cup before.

Vauban is one of several young horses with immense potential for Mullins. \ Healy Racing

Such domination is hard to fathom and looks set to continue for years to come with prospective owners even more likely to send their horses to Mullins. Also, it was notable how much potential Mullins has with his current crop, his younger horses were among his most impressive last week, the likes of State Man, Facile Vega, Stattler, Sir Gerhard, Vauban and The Nice Guy all have their best days ahead of them.

And ironically, the Mullins horse who looked most impressive last week didn’t even win – Galopin Des Champs in the Turners’ Novices Chase.

He had the serious operator Bob Olinger cooked by the time he came to the last where a near inexplicable fall turned what would have been one of the most impressive novice chase performances in Cheltenham history into a defeat.

Here and now

The here-and-now are Energumene and Allaho, the former taking advantage of the complete no-show of his main rival Shishkin and the latter producing what has become a trademark power performance from the front in the Ryanair Chase, both ridden by Paul Townend who ended the week on five winners, comfortably enough to crown him leading rider at the meeting.

Mullins’s son Patrick also had a fabulous week, riding three winners but it was his cousin Danny, who put up the ride of the week when he expertly handled the quirky Flooring Porter to win the Stayers’ Hurdle for the second year in a row.

The seven-year-old often loses concentration and can hang waywardly out of nowhere, which makes him a nightmare for a jockey but Mullins handled everything perfectly, and set a pace to suit his mount from the front. The win provided his syndicate with a magnificent moment, because having missed the meeting 12 months ago, they were there in the flesh to witness their pride and joy.

Flooring Porter is the embodiment of National Hunt racing. Picked up for just €5,000 when his syndicate members from Galway and Roscommon, replied to a Facebook advert, he has progressed into a dual Cheltenham Festival winner. He has also provided his trainer Gavin Cromwell with a fourth Festival win – all of them coming at Grade 1 level.

Fellow Meath native Gordon Elliott came away with two winners and was likely disappointed considering the team he sent over. Commander Of Fleet landed the Coral Cup, giving Cork rider Shane Fitzgerald his first Festival win, and then later on the card, Delta Work saw off Tiger Roll, in the Glenfarclas Cross Country that will long be remembered.

The majority of the 70,000+ crowd at Cheltenham were supporting ‘The Tiger’, only to see him undone by his younger stablemate and co-owned Delta Work. It led to tongue-and-cheek boos initially aimed towards Jack Kennedy, who rode the winner, before Davy Russell and Tiger Roll held back to walk side-by-side with the pair for a truly unique festival moment.

Elsewhere, there was a memorable first win for Padraig Roche, who sent out Brazil to win the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle for JP McManus. Padraig is a son of Christy, a multiple Derby winning jockey and Cheltenham Festival winning trainer, and he has a bright future as a trainer now himself.

The up-and-coming Mark McDonagh was another jockey enjoying his first Festival success after he delivered Joseph O’Brien’s Banbridge brilliantly to win the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockey’s Handicap Hurdle.