'It was a lot of pressure with all those top horses and I enjoy it more now'

If Paul Nicholls ever grows weary of revisiting the glory days of Kauto Star, Denman and Master Minded then he does a very good job of hiding it. Quite rightly so. After all, these were moments that made reputations and history and to allow them to be washed away by the relentless tide of the future would be at best careless, at worst an abdication of the trainer's responsibility to a misty-eyed racing public.

Ten years on from Kauto's epic recapture of his Cheltenham Gold Cup crown, Nicholls may have been asked to relive every glittering moment a million times, but there's a well of gratitude within the man that's deep enough to satisfy every well-meant request, even if he may have more current matters on which to ruminate.

What does get his goat, however, is the lingering suggestion that since his squad of 'galacticos' was pensioned off – let's throw Big Buck's and National winner Neptune Collonges into the mix here as well – his career has been all about 'making do and mending', about darning socks at Ditcheat while fate decides whether the present will ever be a match for the past. With a £370,000 lead in the trainers' championship after Saturday's feast of winners and facile Denman Chase winner Clan Des Obeaux leading the Manor Farm Stables team into the spring, he may be excused for being miffed.