You thought that Mullins would put things right on the second day, but Bacardys was beaten, Bellshill was beaten, Carter McKay was beaten. Even Douvan was beaten. To confound matters, Elliott won the cross-country chase with Cause Of Causes and the Champion Bumper with Fayonagh, both ridden by Jamie Codd and, at half-time, incredibly, Elliott had five winners on the board, Mullins had none.

What followed on Thursday was just as incredible. It started with Yorkhill, it continued with Un De Sceaux and Nichols Canyon, and it ended with Let’s Dance as Mullins won four of the seven races on the day in a Ruby Walsh quadruple masterclass.

Mullins had two more winners on Friday, Arctic Fire and Penhill, both ridden by Paul Townend, and Elliott had one, Champagne Classic in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle, JJ Slevin’s first. So, when the dust settled a little, you realised that they had six winners each and that the VAR would be needed.

You took a moment to appreciate the enormity of the two trainers’ achievements. Of course, there are more races at the Cheltenham Festival these days than there used to be, but six winners would have won every Leading Trainer’s award at the meeting until 2012, when Nicky Henderson had seven. Indeed, Henderson was the only trainer apart from Willie Mullins who had had more than five winners at a single Cheltenham Festival in the history of the meeting. Now add Gordon Elliott to that short list.

And the VAR said that Gordon Elliott had won the 2017 Leading Trainer’s title too. Six winners, three seconds and three thirds, as against Mullins’ six winners, two seconds and four thirds. Strange the elements on which these things can depend. If the short head by which Mega Fortune beat Bapaume for second place behind Defi Du Seuil in the Triumph Hurdle had gone the other way – if Bapaume had finished second by a short head instead of third by a short head – then the Leading Trainer award would have gone the other way too.