The secret of success: Aidan O'Brien's rare insight into the mind of this 'very weird' genius

At this time last year I went to interview Paul Nicholls as he geared up for his annual assault on the King George at Christmas which, as it turned out, proved successful with Bravemansgame.

Nicholls was operating at a ridiculously high strike-rate and I was eager to find out how, after so many years at the top of his profession, he was still managing to eke out more.

He said one of the secrets to success was to never stand still and, regardless of how well the previous season might have gone, he and his right-hand man Clifford Baker made a point of tweaking at least one tried-and-trusted method at the start of the new campaign, just to see if they could make a marginal gain to help keep them ahead of the chasing pack.