Horse Racing: Gloves Are Off As Nicholls and Pipe Go for Title

Between them, they have five of the first six horses in the field, and seven of the first 10. In all, 11 of the 40 runners declared for the Grand National will travel to Aintree from the yards of Paul Nicholls or Martin Pipe, suggesting that the main road from the west country could be congested tomorrow and that the make-up of the big-race field reflects the changing face of National Hunt racing.

This was once a pursuit in which endeavour, enthusiasm and simple good luck often counted for as much as the number of horses in a trainer's yard, with Ginger McCain's preparation of Red Rum on Southport beach being a prime example. Now, though, with Nicholls fielding six runners tomorrow to Pipe's five, the numbers appear to reflect the shifting balance of power in the jumping game.

Nicholls leads Pipe by £700,000 in the prize-money table and yesterday Pipe himself admitted defeat, stating on his website that the trainers' title would be wrested from his grasp for the first time in 11 years.

It has been fairly obvious for some time that there is a personal edge to their sporting rivalry, and any prospect of a warmer relationship probably ended as long ago as the 1998 Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

Pipe's runner Cyborgo, who had been doubtful for the race, went lame at the seventh fence and as his jockey pulled him up he took out Nicholls's See More Business. Many of those attached to the Nicholls yard, particularly those who had backed See More Business at all rates down to 11-2, remember the incident with a burning sense of injustice.

Even so, it was a surprise when Nicholls was quoted in a national newspaper last month setting out his antipathy towards Pipe in the most direct of terms. "Bad manners" and "ignorance" were two of the charges sent in his neighbour's direction, along with a promise "never to say well done to him again".

Nicholls knows that victory in the National would make the rest of the season irrelevant. Such is the prize money involved that an exceptional result for his great rival could, notwithstanding Pipe's concession, extend the campaign a little longer. Both men have done all that they can, and dominate the big-race entries as they dominate the sport, but their fortunes now lie in the capricious hands of the world's greatest steeplechase.