Nicholls hits a treble and passes £2m in prize-money mark

After smashing through the £2 million prize-money barrier courtesy of a treble here, champion trainer Paul Nicholls was bullish about retaining his crown this season despite currently lagging behind rival Nicky Henderson.

Nicholls said: "At the end of Aintree last year we were £180,000 behind Willie Mullins going into the last two weeks of the term and we managed to claw it back so that proves it can be done.We are still in there and fighting.

"I'm under no illusion it’s going to be a close call but there is only about £120,000 between Nicky and myself this time around and we have a strong team of horses lined up to run on better ground over the last month."