Graham Cunningham - Dominationof big two yards

Good one Nick. I was only thinking about this the other day. It's true that there have always been a small number of dominate yards and in the past we've had times when the Dickinsons and Pipes seemed to win pretty much every big weekend racein the calendar. That said, I'm still not sure there's ever been a period when two yards have exercised such amazing control over the big races. I'm just looking at Timeform's top 10 lists as a guide to how strong this domination is. Current standings show that Nicholls and Henderson are responsible for nine of the top 11 chasers in Britain and Ireland and eight of the top 12 hurdlers in Britain and Ireland. I suspect there's a chicken and egg situation at work to a certain extent in that the owners with the ability to buy the best young stock now beat a path to either Ditcheat or Seven Barrows. However, you still have to hand it to Nicholls and Henderson. They both run astonishingly efficient operations and the only real downside is that the control they hold among the elite levels means that we won't see the very best chasers and hurdlers around banging heads with each other as often as we might do if the goodies were spread around a little more evenly.