Paul Nicholls: Envoi Allen is a future Gold Cup winner. I think he's a machine

In the second of our quickfire question and answer features, 11-time champion trainer Paul Nicholls shares his thoughts

Give your season a mark out of ten
Nine, because there is always room for improvement, but we've won plenty of good races and if we'd carried on for another six weeks until the end of the campaign we'd have cracked 100 winners for the 19th straight season – and 20th overall – and we've gone past the £2 million prize-money mark for the 18th time on the trot.

Raw emotion: owner John Hales celebrates Politologue's Champion Chase victory with rider Harry SkeltonCredit: John Grossick

What gave you the most satisfaction?
It's a split between winning an 11th King George with Clan Des Obeaux for my landlord Paul Barber and great mates Ged Mason, who sponsors the yard, and Sir Alex Ferguson, and capturing the Champion Chase with Politologue, who is owned by John Hales. John's been a big supporter of jump racing for ages and had been poorly for a while, so it was a big tonic for him, and a plus for us that we'd worked out the horse and got the best out of him, while I was bullish he'd run well. They were fantastic moments.