The fist pump says it all as Nicholls welcomes arrival of a new star

It would be wholly wrong to say Paul Nicholls is back. He never went away. The problem is the very good horses did.

Where once there were superstars aplenty, last season there were none. There was an absence of top-class performers, but also, relative to rivals Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins, an absence of such horses waiting in the wings.

Nicholls has needed an animal who can make headlines. In a race he so often farmed in the past, he showed he now has one.