A riotous festival dominated by De Bromhead, Mullins and well-backed winners

It was another record-breaking Cheltenham Festival for Willie 'Ten winners' Mullins, who took home more than a third of all the trophies on offer and yet was outdone for headlines by one of the most impactful pairings in racing history, Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore.

De Bromhead has now saddled the Champion Hurdle winner and the first two in the Gold Cup in consecutive years, something that not even Vincent O'Brien managed.

There had been concerns about the form of both De Bromhead and Nicky Henderson during the build-up, but racing of moderate quality can be a poor guide to such matters and both stables landed Grade 1s on the opening day. Conversely, Gordon Elliott had been flying along but can only be disappointed by a return of two winners from 60 festival runners.