Kopek Des Bordes and No Drama This End excused their comeback defeats at Naas and Aintree respectively

Tall Poppy syndrome is a cultural phenomenon which began life in Australasia during the 1980s, where public scorn was directed towards high-profile successful people in the hope that they will fail.

Larger-than-life entrepreneur Alan Bond was that era’s Tall Poppy poster boy, briefly elevated to national hero status after bankrolling Australia’s historic victory in the 1983 America’s Cup yacht competition but soon gleefully derided when his business empire imploded.

“I think Australians by and large love to build you up but, by the same token, they’re equally as determined to not let you go too far,” the late Bond lamented in his final interview - although the fact he was declared bankrupt in the early-1990s with close to $2 billion in personal debt, plus later sentenced to seven years in jail, suggests Bond’s setbacks were largely due to his own actions rather than any jealous sniping from the public!  

As is the modern way, Tall Poppy syndrome has thrived (for want of a better phrase) since the advent of social media and is particularly prevalent in sporting circles now. Given that backdrop, it isn’t the biggest surprise that keyboard warriors have been out in force to highlight a recent dip in fortunes for Paul Nicholls – ironically at a time when Nicholls is just one win short of joining Martin Pipe as the most successful British trainer in National Hunt history.

That milestone aside, it has been a relatively challenging period for the 14-time Champion Trainer by his lofty standards, having failed to reach the century mark in each of the last two seasons – the Covid-shortened 2019/20 campaign is the only other time he’s dipped below 100 wins since 2000/01. Meanwhile, a solitary Grade 1 win in 2025/26 is clearly a disappointing return for a yard with over 150 victories at that level.

To compound matters, Nicholls had to endure several of his former charges land big prizes last season having flourished upon joining other yards. Further character-building results of that ilk could well follow this winter due to the decision by big-spending owners Samantha and Johnny de la Hay to remove all of their horses from Nicholls at the end of 2025/26, sending them to be trained instead by Dan Skelton, Jamie Snowden and Chris Gordon.

The talent drain hasn’t been restricted to horses either, as former stable jockey Harry Cobden also left the yard in the off season to start his new role as retained rider for the leading owner on both sides of the Irish Sea, JP McManus. In addition, former assistants Harry Fry, Dan Skelton and Harry Derham (plus ex-jockeys Sam Thomas, Christian Williams and Nick Scholfield) have all set up successful training operations of their own since leaving the yard.

Skelton has, of course, overtaken his former boss in the trainers’ championship table in recent years. He has also inherited the bulk of the ex-Nicholls inmates to don the blue and pink de la Hay silks, which has resulted in several high-profile clashes already this season.

The latest came in the four-runner Rising Stars Novices’ Chase at Aintree last weekend, where Nicholls’ current stable star No Drama This End (c133P) (who provided that Grade 1 win last season) lined up against former stable-companion Talk To The Man (c143p). Although Skelton and the de la Hays again came out on top in that particular battle, they had to settle for second in the race itself as the Ben Pauling-trained Taurus Bay (c144p) stepped up significantly on his hurdles form to run out a length-and-a-quarter winner (replay below).

A last-place finish clearly wasn’t an ideal return for No Drama This End given he was sent off an 11/8-on favourite but the likelihood is it will prove a short-term blip, particularly as he both looked and shaped as if the outing would bring him on, and he remains an exciting chasing prospect.

All in all it looked a decent renewal of the Rising Stars, which hasn’t really lived up to its name for some time – former Nicholls stalwart Frodon, for example, is its only winner over the past 24 years who tasted victory at the Cheltenham Festival subsequently.

The Rising Stars was one of several headline races rerouted to Aintree after the “West Country Weekend” had to be shelved due to the ground at both Exeter and Wincanton being deemed unfit for racing after the prolonged dry spell.

This switch to elsewhere in the UK proved rather symbolic as the West Country doesn’t have quite the same grip on jumping’s big prizes it once enjoyed. When Paul Nicholls won his first trainers’ championship back in 2005/6, he was chased home by Philip Hobbs and Martin Pipe (who retired at the end of that season) – the third time in five seasons this West Country trio had locked out the top three in the table (Hobbs finished fourth in the other two campaigns!)

The names Nicholls, Pipe and Hobbs would continue to be permanent fixtures in the upper echelons of the championship table for a good while after that, though 2019/20 is the last time all three finished in the top 10 – when Nicholls was second (runner-up to Nicky Henderson), Hobbs seventh and David Pipe ninth.

The new influx of training talent has flexed its muscles in the years since lockdown, with half of the top ten places in 2025/26 filled by names who’ve taken out training licences within the last 20 years – in most cases much more recently than that. Therefore, although fourth in the table represented Nicholls’ lowest finish since 1997/98, he’s actually holding his own better than many other established names – for example, Hobbs (now in partnership with Johnson White) finished 18th and Pipe was a lowly 37th last season.

Whether Nicholls will seriously challenge for the trainers’ title again must be open to doubt given Skelton’s current strength in depth, both in terms of quality and quantity – Nicholls is already more than 120 wins adrift of Skelton, who has saddled an eye-watering 244 individual runners so far in 2026 compared to 61 by Nicholls!

That said, Nicholls has already bagged two of the biggest pots of the autumn thanks to wins by Viroflay (c148) at Ascot late last month and Rubaud (h150/c151) in the rerouted Haldon Gold Cup at Aintree last week. Rubaud falls below the top level over both hurdles and fences, so the fact he’s now amassed more £500,000 in prize money clearly reflects very well on his yard.

It was a ninth Haldon Gold Cup win for Nicholls, whose previous heroes included Queen Mother Champion Chase winners Flagship Uberalles, Azertyuiop and Politologue. Unlike those names, Rubaud is unlikely to make much of a ripple in the top two-mile chases, though it’s possible he could swell those coffers further by creeping into the minor placings given it’s a thin division among the home-trained contingent, one which was further weakened by the news L’Eau du Sud (c161) has been ruled out for the season.  

By contrast, Irish yards continues to hold a very strong hand with two-mile chasers, currently responsible for 12 of the top 14 in the ante-post betting for the Queen Mother Champion Chase. True to form, one yard in particular holds an embarrassment of riches, with Willie Mullins responsible for six of the Irish dozen.

One of that sextet fluffed his lines on Sunday, though, as Kopek des Bordes (c160+) provided another example of the perils sometimes involved when taking odds on about high-profile horses at this early stage of the main season. A four-race chasing career made up one win, a heavy fall and two costly short-priced reverses will naturally prompt plenty to pick holes in Kopek des Bordes.

However, as with No Drama This End, last weekend’s defeat was almost certainly down to him needing the run much more than expected – 10-length winner Irish Panther (c158) had been set to finish well behind Kopek des Bordes prior to the latter’s fall at the Punchestown Festival – and it wouldn’t be a surprise if his immediate ante-post market drift for the Champion Chase proves to be a gross overreaction.

Although he promises to be mob-handed in the Champion Chase, one big Cheltenham prize that Mullins continues to shun is the Paddy Power Gold Cup. He has saddled just four runners (all unplaced) so far this century and is without an entry for this Saturday’s renewal, with his perennial rival Gordon Elliott again an absentee too (he’s never had a runner in the race).  

Their stance largely explains why home-trained runners have dominated the race’s recent history – indeed, Tranquil Sea (2009) is the only Irish winner in the last 46 years.

Nicholls has won the race four times, including twice this decade with the seven-year-olds Stage Star (2023) and Il Ridoto (2024).  He is due to be represented by another seven-year-old on Saturday, namely second-season chaser Quebecois (142), who came closest to providing the yard with a Cheltenham Festival winner last spring when a narrow third in the Ultima Handicap Chase.

Quebecois certainly fits the profile of plenty recent Paddy Power winners – 19 of the last 30 renewals have been won by horses just out of the novice stage, whilst a prominent style of racing often plays well over Cheltenham’s Old Course at this time of year.

Happily, Timeform’s current top-rated runner Blueking d’Oroux (154) also ticks both of those boxes, so it’s to be hoped he stands his ground when the final declarations come through on Thursday morning. If he does, he’ll be making his debut for the all-conquering Skelton yard, which saddled the first and third in last year’s renewal. No prizes for guessing who Blueking d’Oroux’s former trainer was...

More in the series

• All just a little bit of history repeating?

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