Willie Mullins has given an extraordinary appraisal of the brightest young star in his Cheltenham squad by labelling Kopek Des Bordes’s ability as mind-blowing. The Champion trainer on both sides of the Irish Sea is primed to have another raft of winners at The Festival, which begins in 34 days, and he displayed the majority of his team, which will be headed by Gold Cup hero Galopin Des Champs, during an open morning at his Closutton yard.

There is no question that Galopin Des Champs holds a special place in Mullins’s affections but he spoke with remarkable candour about the ability of Kopek Des Bordes, whose performance at the Dublin Racing Festival had bookmakers scurrying for cover. Kopek Des Bordes is 6/4 favourite for the Supreme Novices Hurdle, the race which always starts the Festival, and Mullins did nothing to quell the hype that is building around the five-year-old, who thrashed a quality field at Leopardstown on Sunday by upwards of 13 lengths.

‘Ted Walsh rang me the following morning and he said he hadn’t seen a performance like that since Golden Cygnet, which is huge for someone like Ted to say,’ said Mullins. To give that context, Golden Cygnet won the Supreme Novices in 1976 by 15 lengths – it is regarded as one of the greatest performances in Cheltenham history and is always used as a reference point for young hurdlers. Willie Mullins reserved the highest praise for his talented five-year-old Kopek Des Bordes.

The Supreme Novices Hurdle contender is the firm favourite and has earned comparisons to the legendary Golden Cygnet. Mullins continued: ‘Paul (Townend) got down off the horse after the race and said to me that he ran away with him three times in the race. Most normal horses, if you run away with a jockey once, that’s enough – their winning chance has gone. ‘But he ran away with him through the race. Then, when a loose horse came up, I was watching it unfold and thought: “This is going to drive this fellow mad” – which it did. So he went on two or three lengths around the second last bend coming to the second last hurdle.

‘Then Paul got a grip on him again before he went away up the straight. It was a huge performance. We’d never ask a horse that question at home. It blew my mind what he did at Leopardstown, against a field of top-class horses. It really did.’. The depth of the Mullins team is remarkable and another potent missile he has that also appeared at the Dublin Racing Festival is Final Demand. That gelding will go to the two-and-a-half mile Turners Hurdle and his handler had a similar glint in his eye when discussing his ability.

There were also favourable mentions for Majborough, who is bound for the Arkle Chase and a mouthwatering clash with Sir Gino, and Maughreen, whose odds for the Mares Novice Hurdle continue to contract, but Mullins is not taking anything for granted. A look what happened to his old friend and rival Nicky Henderson 12 months ago, when a virus swept his yard and stopped a number of his horses running, is a salutary reminder of how precarious things can be at this time of the year.

‘Every morning I wake up and don’t get a bad report about any of the horses, let alone the Grade One horses we have here today, that’s a blessing,’ said Mullins. ‘What happened to Nicky last year, to me is what we all dread, that something goes through the yard two weeks before Cheltenham. ‘We were gutted for Nicky. It could have been us. Every year we’re the same, we’re all on the look-out for horses coughing, going down with a colic, something unusual in the yard. Every time you get something unusual, you’re wondering is something going through the yard? That’s what happens.’.