It's probably just as well Willie Mullins didn't win the Gold Cup as his dominance of the Cheltenham festival is starting to get embarrassing. When his father, Paddy, won this race nearly 30 years ago, it was customary for the Irish to claim a very occasional big race trophy. Willie's style is to try to rifle the whole cabinet.

A record-breaking eight winners this year, some by a quite a margin, left the Carlow-based trainer satisfied but not overwhelmed.

The character of the man can be judged in how he responded to Djakadam’s narrow defeat in the Gold Cup, a race he has now finished runner-up in five times but has never won.

“We didn’t have any hard luck,” said Mullins. “It was a fantastic run. I was just commending the winner’s brave decision to run in the Gold Cup and it paid off, and the winner [Coneygree] did it the hard way – out in front.”

Later, having picked up the champion trainer trophy for the festival, Mullins said he “can’t quite believe what’s happening” with so many winners this week.

But his mother, Maureen, was far from surprised, putting his success down to his “great experience” as a horseman, going back to his days as an amateur jockey and working on the gallops with her late husband.

Champion

Mrs Mullins revealed that the Gold Cup isn’t the only trophy that eludes Willie. “He was six times amateur champion and says it should have been seven” but

Ted Walsh

was given the “wrong jug” one year – and they still argue over who it belongs to.

As if Mullins’s eight winners weren’t enough, his sister-in-law Margaret landed her first Cheltenham victory with Martello Tower. The race gave her a bit of a dilemma as her son Danny was on board Michael O’Leary’s Milsean, who fought out a tight finish.

“I was shouting for both of them,” said Margaret diplomatically.

The novice hurdler gave owner Barry Connell and rising star Adrian Heskin an overdue festival win. Heskin was only 17 when he first tasted success at Cheltenham in 2010. "I didn't really realise what I'd done; it was my first ride here," he said. "I've put a lot of hard work in since."

At the other end of the career ladder, AP McCoy’s slow canter towards retirement continued.

It was hard to know what would have been the more fitting send-off from Cheltenham: a crashing fall and another broken collarbone, or a short-head victory in a trademark, all-out finish.

Instead, McCoy came in fourth in the last race of the card, which had been named in his honour.

Though this is normally the signal for racegoers to start beating the traffic, a large crowd instead stayed behind to applaud the 19-times champion jockey back to the parade ring.

“Betwixt the stirrup and the ground / Mercy I asked, mercy I found.” How often has McCoy uttered that silent prayer of horsemen – only with slightly less poetic language – as body met turf. With dusk falling over the parade ring, he was in thankful mood for coming out of the sport intact.

“I’m a realist. I’m lucky I’ve ridden here for 20 years and you can’t keep going, much as I’d like to,” he said, between signing autographs and accepting a hug from his wife, Chanelle.

“Sure, I’m going to miss the competitiveness of riding and winning. But I’ll be very happy to come back as a spectator.”

Mullins too was in grateful mood, paying tribute to his large group of stable staff. “The hours are tremendous. They’re going from six in the morning to probably eight or nine at night before they finish, and they’re the people I really want to thank.”

The final tally of Irish-trained wins was 13 for the festival, one fewer than the home team. But already Mullins is thinking of 2016, with stable star Vautour already widely tipped to break his Gold Cup hoodoo.

“We might have the right ammunition next year,” he said. “I’m not stopping yet.”