The old team reunite in glory as Clan Des Obeaux makes Sam late for the last

In May last year Sam Twiston-Davies and Paul Nicholls took a path once trod by Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin. Neither trainer nor jockey ever used the phrase "consciously uncoupling" but that is exactly what they did. They uncoupled not just consciously but amicably. This Christmas afternoon at Kempton was proof positive of that.

To be stable jockey to Nicholls is a great job but also a fiendishly difficult one, as the champion trainer would be first to admit. There are numerous owners to satisfy and only marginally fewer young jockeys who yearn to be in your position. Twiston-Davies was once the younger guy and duly replaced Daryl Jacob in 2014. Four years later Harry Cobden was the brilliant tyro snapping at heels.

We could all see what might come next. It duly happened but it was seamless and harmonious. Twiston-Davies announced he was going freelance and, at the same time, Nicholls announced Cobden would become his number one.

"Me and Paul kind of left each other," was how Twiston-Davies described it in the moments after steering Clan Des Obeaux to a wide-margin success in the Ladbrokes King George VI Chase. This was a relationship rekindled exquisitely.

Clan Des Obeaux on his way to winning the King George for a second timeCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

Not for the first time either. Twiston-Davies had been starved of Grade 1 glory since claiming last year's Finale Junior Hurdle on Quel Destin, another Christmas present supplied by Nicholls. Yet the guv'nor of Manor Farm Stables did not make his name training juvenile hurdlers. The King George king is the modern master when it comes to coaching staying chasers, as he underlined again when Clan Des Obeaux defended his Kempton crown by staying the three-mile trip with a gusto on this occasion missing from stable companion Cyrname.

One could not definitively say Cyrname lacks the stamina for three miles, given both Cobden and Nicholls felt what he actually lacked here was zip. At Ascot last month Cyrname had left Altior exhausted. This time the exhaustion belonged to Cyrname, so much so he forfeited a huge amount of ground to Clan Des Obeaux in between the final two fences. In truth, however, he was also undone by the fact this contest on this track provides the perfect mix for a seven-year-old who was giving his trainer an astonishing 11th triumph in the winter's premier jewel.

"The other one might just win the Gold Cup yet," said Nicholls reassuringly to Cobden as the latter returned aboard Cyrname. He might, although the hill undid Clan Des Obeaux in March and could undo him once again. Yet in the here and now that was an irrelevance, certainly to his owners, one of whom, Sir Alex Ferguson, was not at Kempton but made a point of trying to ring Nicholls straight after the race.

Harry Cobden (right) congratulates Sam Twiston-Davies after the latter's victory on Clan Des ObeauxCredit: Edward Whitaker

Very much here was cheese magnate Paul Barber, at one point lifted into the air by his fellow partner in victory, Ged Mason. "I don't think I've ever seen a horse jump as well as that," said Barber in the walkway between track and paddock as he awaited his hero's return. Here was a man dressed in joy and pride, which poured out of him as he then walked behind his charge and into a chorus of cheers. "He's a proper horse," shouted Barber, before shouting even louder: "Well done Clan! Well done Clan!"

Mason might well have shouted something similar. Based on what he was saying before approaching the podium, he might also have needed some of Barber's Cheddar to soak up the alcohol.

"We're going to party like no-one has partied before," he told the members of his entourage, after which he caught sight of the large drum of water from which his winner was being refreshed. "Is that vodka?" he asked. If it had been there might not have been enough.

Over in the spot reserved for the third was Willie Mullins, who prior to Footpad's admirable effort had watched from afar as Faugheen crushed Samcro at Limerick. Asked if Faugheen would stay in novice chase company for the the rest of the season, it was Mullins' turn to ask a question, one not linked to vodka. "Are you tempting me to go to the Gold Cup?" he inquired with a smile on his face. "Can't he be a 12-year-old novice winner? Anyway, that's a long way off. We're delighted to have got as far as we have with him."

Paul Barber and Ged Mason admire their dual King George hero Clan Des ObeauxCredit: Edward Whitaker

Twiston-Davies was exceptionally delighted – indeed, he looked ecstatic when thumping the air as he crossed the line. "I was trying not to swear," he said of his ITV post-race interview. "I wanted to be polite. That's not always in my nature."

He must have been thinking of someone else. It is hard to imagine anyone in racing more polite than Sam Twiston-Davies, a man who must constantly make parents Nigel and Cathy proud, not just because of what he achieves but because of how he behaves.

It was the same again here. For as he walked back to the weighing room after collecting his trophy, he was stopped again and again by fans, some adults, some children. They wanted a picture, an autograph or just the chance to offer congratulations. He stopped with a smile for all of them, until when still 50 metres from the weighing room he spotted the riders for the next race, all dressed in silks and walking towards the paddock.

"Oh shit, I'm so late," he said, horror in his voice. Then he sprinted, possibly forgetting he was the man who had just won the King George.

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