Twenty winners for Mullins - and almost as many Cheltenham Festival favourites

Stattler's defeat at Tramore shows that Willie Mullins has not quite reached the stage of being completely unbeatable, but he was once more the undisputed king of Christmas racing. Twenty winners were sent out by the Closutton trainer, from Dark Raven at lunchtime on Boxing Day (or St Stephen's Day, depending on your point of view) to James Du Berlais at Fairyhouse on New Year's Day.

The first of those was a maiden hurdle and the last was a beginners' chase, but there were much better prizes in between.

Mullins took home five Grade 1 trophies over the past week and, amazingly enough, starts the year with two horses who are already odds-on for top-class contests at the Cheltenham Festival, still some ten weeks away.