RACING:A MOMENTOUS 2010-2011 National Hunt season in Ireland winds up with the final day of the Punchestown Festival this afternoon and Unaccompanied can provide a suitably transitional tone to the Grade One feature.

Dermot Weld’s dual-purpose star lines up for the AES Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle on the back of a memorable Curragh victory in the Alleged Stakes over St Nicholas Abbey. The bare form may not have quite the lustre it once would have had but it indicates the raw talent of a filly who found only Zarkandar too good for her in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham and who looks to be still rapidly on the upgrade.

With Paul Townend sidelined having re-injured his collarbone earlier in the week, Paul Carberry is scheduled to team up with Unaccompanied, who faces six opponents, including the Triumph third Grandouet and Kumbeshwar, who ran Zarkandar close at Aintree.

The bare form gives both British challenges major chances but the impression remains that Unaccompanied is a mare to stick firmly on the right side of.

Townend’s absence this week doesn’t look like preventing the young rider from picking up a first jockeys’ championship at today’s awards ceremony, where the prizes will be presented by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

A unprecedented 13 winners at the Cheltenham Festival, including six on day two alone, was a highlight for Irish National Hunt fans and Willie Mullins was also leading trainer at the festival that continues to dominate the National Hunt scene on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Mullins will be crowned champion trainer in Ireland again today for the fourth consecutive year while JP McManus appears set to regain the owners’ crown from Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud team. Mullins’s son, Patrick, is set to retain his amateur rider’s title from Nina Carberry while Bryan Cooper is the leading conditional rider this term.

This afternoon’s other €80,000 highlight is the Tote Handicap Hurdle where Willie Mullins saddles six runners and has a reserve as well if necessary.

Earlier in the week the champion trainer had a similarly massive representation in another handicap and it was David Casey who emerged best on Kerb Appeal. It could be a similar result here because even though Ruby Walsh is on Doctor Deejay there was a lot to like about Deutschland’s return to action at Fairyhouse less than a fortnight ago and the versatile sort could be a touch of each-way value.

The Mullins team are also heavily involved in the Grade Three mares hurdle but this may be an opportunity for Elyaadi.