Paul Nicholls is determined to see off Willie Mullins' audacious bid for the British trainers' championship by targeting the last meeting of the jumps season at Sandown on Saturday.
Having trailed Mullins at the start of play at the weekend, Nicholls surged into a £33,000 lead thanks to a fabulous four-timer at Ayr, headlined by Vicente's victory in the Coral Scottish Grand National.
Though Nicholls will not be represented at Perth's three-day meeting this week, he will concentrate on fixtures near to his Somerset base and then launch one final assault when the curtain comes down at Sandown as he seeks to win the title for a 10th time.
"We've got plenty to run at the West Country meetings this week but we're not going to Perth," Nicholls, celebrating his 54th birthday, told At The Races.
"We didn't have the right horses suitable for the races. It's a long way to go without the right horses, so we've decided to stay down south and aim for Sandown on Saturday.
"There was no point going all that way to Perth if we weren't going to have winners.
"There's massive prize-money at Sandown. It's big, and no matter what we do during the week those big races at the weekend are going to make the difference.
"It's going to be a dry week and the ground could be good, which will be a big help for some of them. We should run plenty.
"There are quite a few really good races at Sandown and we've got something in most of the races, headed up by Southfield Theatre, who we've aimed at the bet365 Gold Cup.
"Dodging Bullets will run. He's fine - the ground could be a little bit quicker than it has been the rest of the season. I wouldn't mind that with him.
"He's got to come back from a couple of ordinary runs, so it might be this year hasn't been his year.
"Sandown might suit him and I might put him in the two-and-a-half-miler as well as the Celebration Chase.
"At some stage of his career he's going to end up going over further.
"Sandown's going to be a big day at the weekend for a lot of people.
"We're looking forward to it and we'll just keep doing the best we can."
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