An open apology to Paul Nicholls: you were right and you constantly amaze me

The more things change, the more they stay the same. And, boy, have things changed out Ditcheat direction over the last decade.

As Clan Des Obeaux defied an alarming drift, an alarming prep at Newbury and an alarming late scare from Conflated to bag his second Betway Bowl on Thursday, I couldn't help but remember what Ruby Walsh said at an Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association seminar at Hotel Minella last Monday evening.

Walsh was explaining to the audience how quickly power can shift in the jumping world, and said: "If I told you when I got off Kauto Star in 2009, after he won his second Gold Cup, Paul Nicholls' third Gold Cup in a row, that in just over ten years' time he would have six runners at the Cheltenham Festival and would not get a look-in, you would have told me I was mad.