Big Buck's, Denman and Kauto Star headline fantastic Nicholls five

Choosing 'five of the best' from the Paul Nicholls stable which has sent out well over 100 top-level winners is fraught with difficulties, as while Big Buck’s, Denman and Kauto Star pick themselves, there are alternatives to Master Minded and See More Business, who have been chosen to complete this particular quintet.

Rock On Ruby, for example, Nicholls's sole winner of the Champion Hurdle, or Neptune Collonges, his Grand National winner and who in Ireland won two Punchestown Gold Cups and a Hennessy.

Or how about two-milers Azertyuiop, Call Equiname and Flagship Uberalles, dual King George winner Silviniaco Conti or this season’s tenth King George winner Clan Des Obeaux?

Not forgetting Cyrname, who has officially been rated superior to Altior following February’s Grade 1 win in the Ascot Chase, or Frodon, whose emotional Ryanair win Nicholls himself talked of as a career highlight.

Big Buck's

Nicholls has made plenty of inspired decisions, but none has reaped greater dividends than opting to switch Big Buck’s back to hurdles after he blundered badly and unseated his rider in the 2008 Hennessy Gold Cup.

From January 2009 to December 2012 Big Buck’s carried all before him over hurdles, rattling up 18 straight wins, including four in succession in Cheltenham’s Stayers’ Hurdle, and confirming himself the outstanding staying hurdler of modern times – possibly of all time.

Big Buck's: a fantastic staying hurdlerCredit: Edward Whitaker

His last win, where he beat Reve De Sivola at Newbury, was as easy as any, and at the time many would have regarded a fifth Festival win as a virtual formality.

However, he missed 2013 following a small tendon tear and was well below form in two starts on his return, before retiring as a winner of 23 of his 40 races with more than £1.3 million in earnings.

Denman

Few rivalries in modern steeplechasing have matched that between Denman and Kauto Star, his next door neighbour at Ditcheat.

Both oozed class, but whereas Kauto Star was nimble, athletic and speedy enough to win at the top level over two miles, Denman was a massive brute of a horse and a thorough stayer for whom the nickname ‘the tank’ was perfect.

Denman got the better of Kauto Star with a monstrous effort when the pair went head-to-head for the first time in the 2008 Gold Cup, but in three further attempts at the prize he was second every time, including to Kauto Star the following year.

As good as it gets: Kauto Star (right) goes head to head with Denman in the 2009 Cheltenham Gold CupCredit: Mark Cranham

While that Gold Cup success was his defining moment, many fans will point to two fabulous wins in the Hennessy Gold Cup, the first of them when just out of novice company in 2007 and the second two years later off a mark of 174 when returning to the track following a heart issue.

Kauto Star

Kauto Star is widely recognised as the greatest chaser since Arkle and made Cheltenham history when beating Denman in 2009 as the first horse to regain the Gold Cup after losing it, having first won the race in 2007 but then beaten by his stablemate in between.

Yet, while that fabulous win in the 2009 Gold Cup will live long in the memory, it is a measure of the horse that his record at the festival almost pales when set alongside his achievements at Haydock and Kempton.

He won both his first Betfair Chase and first King George in a magnificent six-week spell in 2006, during which he underlined his versatility by dropping back to two miles for a second impressive win in the Tingle Creek at Sandown.

Glory days: the Manor Farm team in full flight after Kauto Star had regained his Gold Cup crown in 2009

Three more Betfair Chases followed – who can forget his return in 2011 to beat Long Run when widely written off? – and there were four more King Georges, the last of them also in 2011, and also ahead Long Run.

In total Kauto Star won 16 Grade 1s. His 'Triple Crown' in the 2006-07 season earned him a £1m bonus, put up by Betfair.

Master Minded

In 2008 MasterMinded became the youngest-ever winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase, producing one of the outstanding chasing performances of this century in winning by 19 lengths as a five-year-old.

After winning the Tingle Creek the following season, he then took the Clarence House Chase by 16 lengths, after which his proud trainer beamed: "I thought he was unbelievable. He’s the best I’ve trained, and probably the best I’ll ever train."

Master Minded: two-mile chasing great for NichollsCredit: David Dew (racingpost.com/photos)

Nicholls had Gold Cup winners Denman and Kauto Star in his yard at the time, so there could have been no higher praise.

Master Minded went on to plunder a second Champion Chase at Cheltenham, and enjoyed 16 victories in all, half of them at Grade 1 level, proving himself a great champion.

See More Business

See More Business was not Paul Nicholls's first Grade 1 winner – that was See More Indians in the 1993 Feltham Novices' Chase – but he was arguably the stable’s first truly top-class chaser.

His 18 wins from 36 starts in a career which saw him race on until just short of turning 14 included the first two of Nicholls's ten King Georges – 1997 and 1999 – and the first of his four Cheltenham Gold Cups.

See More Business winning the 1999 Cheltenham Gold CupCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

He ran in the Gold Cup five times and Nicholls must have feared he had missed his best chance when he was carried out when strongly fancied in 1998.

However, he returned to beat Go Ballistic in a close finish 12 months later in a momentous week when Nicholls also won the Arkle with Flagship Uberalles and Queen Mother Champion Chase with Call Equiname. He had never previously had a festival winner.

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