“I would be disappointed if we don’t do it - and do it by a good bit.”

Paul Nicholls will be crowned champion trainer for the 14th time at Saturday’s bet365 Jump Finale fixture at Sandown Park and, despite his Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat lacking the weight of superstar horses of yesteryear, this must rank as one of his most memorable seasons.

It’s certainly set to be his best-ever in terms of prize money earnings, with the £3,646,511 total from the 2007/08 season very much in sight for a trainer perennially driven by the championship and season’s targets. Nicholls is currently just £85,000 shy of that record haul and has a strong team for Saturday’s £650,000 card.

Back in that 2007/08 campaign, Nicholls won the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Denman, the Champion Chase with Master Minded and the Betfair Chase, King George and Ascot Chase with Kauto Star among nine Grade One triumphs. Nicholls has won six this season – and two-thirds of those in less valuable novice events – yet is still on course for a record season despite a very cold winter and two prolonged spells without jumps racing wreaking further disruption on the calendar.

While a Grade One victory in open company at the Cheltenham Festival would have been the icing on the cake, the trainer will surely be delighted with this campaign and the form of his horses throughout. Here, we list some of the key numbers and just five of the horses that have helped the trainer along the way.

Nicholls has saddled 161 winners from 578 runners this term. He has never bettered his current 28% strike-rate in a British jumps season, while he has only trained more winners in the 2020/21 season (176 but from nearly 150 more runners.) Ditcheat horses have either won or placed 49.7% of the time this season.

Nicholls has sent out more than one winner on a given day’s racing on 38 occasions during this jumps season, with 24 doubles or across-the-card doubles and eight trebles - most notably the 101-1 three-timer on Festival Trials Day at Cheltenham. The stable has enjoyed six four-timers this season, with stable favourite Frodon winning the feature Badger Beer on the big day of the year at local track Wincanton to kickstart arguably the most notable one.

We often hear talk from jockeys and trainers of yearned-for ‘Saturday winners’ and no trainer has proven more adept at winning them in recent times than Nicholls.

Ditcheat have landed 49 of them from 192 runners ahead of this weekend’s finale and at an excellent strike-rate (25.5%) and to a level stakes profit (+£11.56). For context, Dan Skelton – second in the trainers’ championship – has 29 Saturday winners from 194 runners this term (15%), while Nicky Henderson has sent out 18 from 107 (16.8%).

Stable jockey Harry Cobden deserves a mention here and his coolness on the big day as well as his sensible forward-going tactics in lesser midweek races in smaller fields have no doubt helped contribute to a likely record season.

While Nicholls’ strike-rate has been the highest ever, it’s better still when taking into account horses just ridden by Cobden (30%) and he needs two more before the week is out to bring up a century this term for the jockey and trainer combination.

The stable flagbearer was all class in the King George to run out a remarkable 13th winner for Nicholls in the mid-season highlight and realise a long-held plan. He ran a fine race in the Cheltenham Gold Cup – justifying strong pre-race confidence from the stable – and has contributed around 10% to Nicholls’ prize-money haul this term. He’s only eight and had just eight runs over fences, so he should be a real presence in the top staying chases for the next few seasons while Nicholls has already trained four repeat winners of the King George. The bookmakers currently price up a fifth next winter at no bigger than 5-2.

Despite Betfair Hurdle victory and some good wins over fences there was almost a sense that he’d never quite justified his lofty billing, but he’s absolutely come of age this season by making all for a brace of Grade Two wins and then getting his Grade One breakthrough in the Melling Chase at Aintree earlier this month. His sole defeat was his Ascot Chase reverse when second behind Shishkin, yet he shaped better than the big margin of defeat suggested while the winner has since advertised the form at Aintree.

His winning prize money of £240,000 is the most of any Ditcheat horse this season and only just shy of the total accrued by Bravemansgame.

The stable’s third-highest earner this term, the Grade One winner over hurdles tailed off at the spring festivals last year but showed the improvement typical for the yard’s horses once going over fences, winning four of his six starts and landing Grade One honours at the Cheltenham Festival. He is a Ryanair horse for next season, says Nicholls.

Although not a big prize money contributor this term, the expensive point recruit ran a blinder for third in the Champion Bumper - a rare runner in that Cheltenham Festival assignment for Nicholls - and headlines a strong bumper crop this season that augurs well for the trainer’s future novice hurdle and chasing ranks.

Nicholls has a 30% strike-rate in bumpers this season and 18 individual winners in that sphere, his highest-ever figure.

He's not one of the foremost lights at Ditcheat but he’s been campaigned to maximum effect by Nicholls, taking advantage of some good opportunities to plunder plenty of prize money. Sent chasing for the first time last May, he has since won five from seven over the larger obstacles and earned over £38,000 in prize money despite facing no more than three rivals in any of those contests and winning three match races along the way. Similarly, Huelgoat started from a mark of 95 last July and won four of his nine starts through until Boxing Day, again in mostly small-field affairs and for nearly £25,000 in earnings.