SO, it has come down to this, Nicholls v Mullins (you put Nicholls first because he’s at home), the final hurrah, the last day of the season with pots of prize money up for grabs, showdown at the OK Corral. (Only it’s not Corral, it’s Bet365, you’re getting today mixed up with Eclipse day.)

After 364 days of racing, from Aintree and Ascot through Cheltenham to Taunton and Warwick, after both men have accumulated more than £2 million in prize money, here we are on the final morning of the final day of the season, with mere (relative) pounds and pennies between them.

It looked like it was all over after Aintree when Mullins swept the boards, with Apple’s Jade and Annie Power and Bacardys and Yorkhill and Douvan and Ivan Grozny, while Nicholls had winners at Taunton. Then Vicente won the Scottish Grand National at Ayr last Saturday, and it was game on again.

And it is a strange game this one. Nicholls ran six horses in the Aintree Grand National, including the 12/1 third favourite Silviniaco Conti. He had six of the 39 runners, that’s over 15% of the runners, and his best-placed finisher was Unionist, who netted £1,000 for finishing 10th. He had one runner in the Scottish National, one of the 28, just three and a half per cent of the runners, and he wins it. The £119,595 that Vicente netted was obviously crucial, bolstered by three other winners for Nicholls on Scottish National day.

PIVOTAL MOMENTS

Pivotal moments in the last 364 days in the trainers’ championship? Vautour’s fall in the Melling Chase at Aintree for starters. He was a 1/5 shot and the race was worth £112,788 to the winner. If Vautour had stood up, it would be Mullins who would be 50 grand ahead going into today, not Nicholls.

Voix Du Reve’s fall at the final flight in the Fred Winter Hurdle. We don’t know where he would have finished, but he probably would have gone close to winning, and his fall (and Campeador’s) allowed Nicholls fill the first two places in the race with Diego Du Charmil and Romain De Senam. We didn’t really think about it at the time but, with over 42 grand to the winner, 16 for the second and eight for the third, that was a possible swing of £77,398.

There will probably be other pivotal moments today.