Winter is coming – and so are the massed ranks of the Ditcheat army

With next to no dabbling in summer jumping this year it was a quiet few months down Ditcheat way. “I even heard some of the press muttering something must be wrong,” laughs Paul Nicholls. But during that time he told anyone within earshot he planned to roar back into action come the two-day meeting at Chepstow in October and the ten-time champion was true to his word. He sent out four winners at what used to be regarded as the start of the winter season.

A healthy flow of winners since then points to another golden November, which is traditionally the stable’s strongest time of year. His winning tally for that month in the last five seasons reads: 17-24-19-28-20. That averages out at two winners every three days during each November day since 2013, and the trainer is hopeful of maintaining the sequence “provided we get plenty of rain soon”.

The yard was dealt a “massive blow” last week with the news that Master Tommytucker, rated by his trainer “one of the most talented horses we’ve had here since the days of Kauto Star”, is out for the season after sustaining a couple of hairline fractures to his off-fore knee in a fall at Chepstow.