Ballyburn won the opening Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle, leading home a 1-2-3-4-5 for the Irish trainer.

Regarded as ‘banker’ of the meeting for many, Ballyburn justified his reputation with a comfortable 13-length win from stablemate Jimmy Du Seuil.

Townend was so in control, he could afford a look round at his rivals turning for home.

“He was very good, jumped brilliantly. He is ‘wow’,” said the jockey.

Mullins’ domination is in stark contrast to the fortunes of British trainer Henderson, who has withdrawn several runners with his stable badly out of form.

Jingko Blue in the opener became his sixth of seven runners to be pulled up this week.

“We’re good pals and we like the competition, and it’s just awful for people,” said Mullins.

“You save it all up for the whole year – your energy, everything, put it all into this and then the horses are taken out because of some mystery, whatever’s going through the yard. It’s tough, really tough.

“It’s not good for the racing – we like competition. We have to have it.”

Fact To File confirmed his standing as a Cheltenham Gold Cup contender for next year with an impressive victory in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, pushing clear of runner-up Monty’s Star.

The triumph vindicated Mullins’ decision to skip hurdling and go straight over fences with the seven-year-old.

In the 10th race of the meeting, only the second British-trained winner came courtesy of Langer Dan.

The 13-2 chance, ridden by Harry Skelton for his brother Dan, followed his 2023 victory to become the first dual winner of the Coral Cup.

And the brothers teamed up to triumph again with 12-1 chance Unexpected Party in the Grand Annual Chase.