Willie Mullins makes history as the legendary trainer wins his 100th race at the Cheltenham Festival... after Jasmin de Vaux surges to victory in the Champion Bumper

Willie Mullins doffed his cap to the crowd and then gave the universally recognised gesture that some form of refreshment was going to be taken.

As well he might. Yes, there has been an inevitability that Mullins was going to record the 100th success of his extraordinary Cheltenham odyssey this week but now the moment had arrived, he was fully entitled to enjoy it.

Jasmin De Vaux, ridden by his son, Patrick, had delivered the landmark triumph in day two’s closing event, the Champion Bumper. This race has been exceedingly good to him down the years and the five-year-old became his 13th winner, sticking determinedly to his guns.

True, there wasn’t the breathtaking flamboyance of winner No 98 — the swaggering Ballyburn, whose dismantling of his rivals in the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle left part-owner David Manasseh weeping tears of joy — or the wonderful potential of winner No 99, Browns Advisory hero Fact To File.

But the sense of history that Jasmin De Vaux brought with him in a surging run was overwhelming. This, to make a comparison, was like watching a golfer enter the uncharted waters of a 19th major or a Premier League team being champions for five consecutive years.

Willie Mullins has now trained 100 Cheltenham winners after taking the final race of Day two

Willie’s son Patrick was the jockey of Jasmin de Vaux who clinched the trainer’s landmark win

Mullins tips his hat for the cameras after achieving his iconic victory on day two at Cheltenham

What Mullins has done is extraordinary and this will give you a clearer sense of what he has built: when the 2014 Cheltenham Festival ended, his tally was 33. To have added another 67 in the ensuing decade is beyond belief.

‘I can’t put it into words because no one thought anyone would even think they could train 100 winners here,’ said Mullins, who was evidently overcome. ‘When I trained my first with Tourist Attraction (in 1995), that was a lifetime achievement.

‘So I’m just absolutely stunned we have come this far. I’ve such a wonderful team, headed by my wife Jackie, Patrick, David Casey, all my head people. It’s just a team effort, they do it. Having a team like that behind me is just incredible.

‘For Patrick to ride it for one of our biggest owners (Simon Munir and Isaac Souede). It’s a team effort — from the owners, who are the mainstays, all the way down. We’re stunned we’ve come this far. Who could comprehend someone training 100? I certainly never thought it would be me.’

He certainly never took it for granted. How could he, when he saw El Fabiolo — sent off at odds of 2-9 — was pulled up after four fences in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, paving the way for Rachael Blackmore and Henry de Bromhead to profit with Captain Guinness.

‘It’s funny how it happens,’ recognised Mullins, who was one of the first to congratulate De Bromhead. ‘Simon and Isaac were disappointed with El Fabiolo so to own this as well is a little bit of justice, a change in luck.’

Nothing is certain in racing. Nothing. Horses become unwell — think how Nicky Henderson is feeling right now, as his team battle a bug in their yard — and they don’t always jump as they should. Everything has to go right and Mullins knows one day, for him, it won’t.

‘I always bring it back to when the Gigginstown split happened, the biggest owner in racing, and we lost a third or a quarter of our horses,’ said Patrick Mullins, referencing the time when Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary moved his string away in 2016 over a dispute about training fees.

‘But instead of him, in his early 60s, consolidating, he went out and got more owners, more staff, more problems and became bigger. If that hadn’t happened we might not be where we are now. He’s a funny man — the more you try to tell him to do something, the more he does the opposite.

‘So you have to try reverse psychology sometimes. He doesn’t really get down, he gets angry the odd time, but not up or down, and that’s a big thing.

Mullins (pictured at Cheltenham in 2004) won his first race as a trainer back in 1995

Among his most famous victories was with Hurricane Fly in the Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy in 2011 and 2013 (pictured with jockey Ruby Walsh after their 2011 win)