Impossible not to empathise with Mullins plight

At times such as this, we tend to qualify things by observing that these are first-world problems.

Willie Mullins has the good grace and humility to acknowledge as much, but such a sustained onslaught of travails is enough to push even someone as mild-mannered as him to the brink of sanity.

While you don't get to where the nine-time champion trainer has without a steely core, that deep-seated resilience is being called upon in spades right now.