Closutton empire bowed but still far from beaten

We have had a lamentable cause for some Willie Mullins number crunching in recent days.

Eventually, in broadening the criteria to a 12-month period and allowing for everything from the Gigginstown split to fatalities, injuries and retirements, we have determined that the champion trainer has seen 18 horses who have or would have won Grade 1s removed from his 2017 Cheltenham Festival delegation.

It is a desolation of Ozymandias proportions. When you take Faugheen, Annie Power, Min and co out of the equation, at the risk of mangling the old verse, the shattered visage of that colossal wreck left decaying in the sand might spring to mind. Another week, another chip eroded from the Closutton pedestal, with Gordon Elliott busy sculpting his own vast edifice at Mullins’ expense.