A class apart - double gives Willie Mullins 40 per cent of Grade 1s run in 2022

A Grade 1 double any day is worth celebrating and after State Man added the Matheson Hurdle to Gaillard Du Mesnil's win in the Neville Hotels Novice Chase a little over half an hour earlier, Joe and Marie Donnelly could have been forgiven for thinking that Christmas had arrived four days late.

At the centre of it all was Willie Mullins, who was racking up a scarcely credible 30th and 31st Grade 1 victory of 2022.

Just for a little context, there are 37 top-level races in Ireland - of which Mullins has won 24 - and 39 in Britain across a calendar year, making 76 in total. That means Mullins has won a staggering 65 per cent of the Grade 1s in Ireland in 2022, but with the Closutton supremo not fielding a runner in the Coral Challow Hurdle at Newbury on Saturday his harvest of Grade 1s across both countries is doomed to drop just below 41 per cent of those on offer.