PAUL NICHOLLS was sitting in his office considering the flying start he has made to the season.

A year ago, the 10-time champion trainer had been only eighth in the table with 25 winners and less than £200,000 in prize money. This season he already has the fastest half-century of his career and double the money in the bank but admitted that there is no one, great difference.

“We won the championship last year but we weren't happy with the horses until the last two weeks of the season,” Nicholls admitted. “Clifford [Baker, Nicholls’ head man] and I tweaked a couple of things with feeding, working the horses and investing money in the gallops during the summer. And all those things make a little difference and since then the horses have been going well. You never stop learning,”

The first lesson that Nicholls learned as a trainer a quarter of a century ago was a tough one. On November 1, 1991, he became a trainer officially with eight horses and a hatful of dreams; the following day he took Southover Lad to Chepstow.

Nicholls reckoned he had the horse fit enough but could only watch as he pulled up at half-way with a leg injury. The next six weeks produced a string of seconds most notably when Bumbles Folly was passed jumping the last fence as he led at Hereford on December 20. Christmas did come early for Nicholls, though, when Olveston won the next race on the card.

“Well, at least it kept our feet on the ground,” Nicholls said of his character-building entry to a profession he has come to dominate. “But then we had a couple of winners on Boxing Day and finished the season on 10 winners.”

The eight horses are now 120 and this week he will be sending runners to Ireland and France in pursuit of winners that now total more than 2600 and include 111 Grade Ones. The 112th may come at Down Royal next Saturday when Silviniaco Conti runs in the JNWine.com Champion Chase.

By his own admission, Nicholls does not have the stellar horses like Kauto Star, Denman or Big Bucks but Silviniaco Conti would be a star in most other yards with his seven Grade One victories including two in the King George VI Chase at Kempton.

He looked a shadow of that when he pulled up in his attempt at the hat trick 10 months ago, however, he proved himself no back number when he won the Grade One Ascot Chase in February. He again pulled up in the Grand National at Aintree in April but Nicholls views any analysis of the horse’s form as going only skin-deep. “He’s had all those troubles with sarcoids,” Nicholls said.

“They’re like a tumour or wart on the skin and he had them all over him. There was one he had under his elbow and when he jumped at Haydock [when Silviniaco Conti finished second in the Betfair Chase last November] he split it wide open. So that was sore when he was jumping.

“He has been in since mid-July and has been working hard and has not missed a beat. In a lot of ways I would say he is close to being back to his best fitness-wise. This is the first time for a while that I’ve been able to train him without any problems. I don’t think he was ever right last season but I’m hoping he’s in a better place now.”

The place for Ptit Zig will be Auteuil when he runs the same day in the Grand Prix d'Automne attempting to follow up his victory in Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil in June. Neither wins would count towards an 11th trainers’ championship for Nicholls but Frodon could if he runs in the BetVictor Gold Cup at Cheltenham on November 12th.

As a four-year-old, Frodon receives a 9lb weight-for-age allowance and would be at the bottom of the handicap. “It might be a shot in the dark, but this time next year she might be rated 15lb higher,” Nicholls reasoned.

A long shot perhaps but, having won his two starts over fences in Britain, no-one could claim that Nicholls is flying too high.