Willie Mullins has been planning this for 622 days - and it's about to come to spectacular fruition

He's the right horse, at the right time, trained by the right trainer, with the right man on board, and the right man looking after him down there. What could possibly go wrong?

If not now, when? That is the question Willie Mullins would have been asking himself as he boarded his flight on Thursday night. Deep down he knows this is it. The moment of truth has arrived. You get one proper shot at something as big as this. This is that shot.

Holy Orders was himself, a nutjob. Stratum was a solid stayer; so too was Simenon. There was the talented Thomas Hobson, the wonderful Wicklow Brave and, of course, Max Dynamite, who seemed to spend his whole career punching above his weight. But none of them was Vauban. None of them has his class. None of them had his profile. None of them travelled in expectation; they all went in hope.