Mullins and Townend the big winners on record breaking final day of Punchestown festival

It was another day for Willie Mullins to savour at Punchestown as he finished the festival on a high with three winners making it home to ensure that he finished with three times as many winners as Gordon Elliot, who was the second best trainer, at the end of the week.

12 of Mullins' horses won at the final festival meeting of the 2016 season, three of which arrived on a record breaking final day at the Kildare racecourse today. The Family Day at Punchestown attracted over 30,000 through the gates this afternoon, meaning it topped the figures from all previous days.

The attraction of two Grade 1 races on the card was surely a big factor in the high attendance, and both of those races threw up very mixed results for Mullins.

The Mares Champion Hurdle brought one of the biggest shock results of the festival as the hotly tipped Limini was beaten by stablemate Whiteout in the first feature race of the day. Although it was a one-two for Mullins, it wasn't in the order he would have imagined as the 16/1 shot finished almost five lengths ahead of Limini, who was as short-priced as 11/10 before the off.

Ruby Walsh was on board the Cheltenham winner, but he seemed to leave the charge too late as by the time he eventually challenged, Paul Townend and Whiteout had already built up too good a lead.

There were no shocks in the race immediately after that however as 4/6 favourite Apple's Jade eased to a nine length victory over another Mullins' horse Let's Dance. While Apple's Jade won by a stunning 41 lengths over second-placed Ivanovich Gorbatov in Aintree last time out, there was no repeat of such a hefty winning margin this time, though there was never any fear that the Bryan Cooper ridden horse would be seriously pressured.

A third straight victory arrived for Mullins in the very next race when Townend rode Pleasant Company to victory in an impressive performance. He was pushed hard all the way by Regal Encore, and eventually finished with just half a length to spare, while Katie Walsh delivered an impressive ride on On The Shannon to finish in third. Grand National winner Rogue Angel set the early pace in this race, but finished in last place behind the other nine runners to complete the race.