Nicky Henderson will be looking for his third Jumps Trainers Championship in as many years, with his big guns returning to the track in the next few weeks.
Henderson has dominated the jumps season in Britain in the last few years, and welcomes back last season's Gold Cup Runner-up Might Bite at Haydock this weekend for the Betfair Chase.
Champion Chaser Altior, has been confirmed to return in the Tingle Creek next month at Sandown, whilst Champion Hurdler Buveur D'Air, will head back to the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle.
The man from Seven Burrows will need all three to be firing as he looks to make up ground at the top of the Trainers Championship - where Dan Skelton has skipped into an uncontested lead.
The latter is currently clear at the top with 114 winners, but the Championship is contested over prize money, of which he has secured £982,000 so far. Paul Nicholls, a ten-time Champion Trainer leads the chasing pack, with almost a third of the winners Skelton has recorded, but is only £300,000 down in prize money.
Henderson is a further £200,000 down with exactly half of Skelton's total winners, but with his Champions of last year returning in the near future in some valuable feature races, the race for the Jumps Trainers Championship, is well and truly on.
Dan Skelton racked up his usual head-start over the summer period, also breaking the record for the quickest time to reach 100 winners, whilst most of Henderson's and Nicholls' stable-stars were on their summer breaks.
However, Nicky Henderson is odds-on to reclaim his crown, and can make serious in-roads on catching the leader in the coming weeks and over the festive period.
