Southwell options for Nicholls

In-form trainer Paul Nicholls could be double handed in the Sky Bet Chase at Southwell on Saturday.

Colourful Life bids for back-to-back victories in the contest after winning last season’s renewal at Doncaster, and he could also be represented by current ante-post favourite Ladalko.

Nicholls pulled off a remarkable feat at Wincanton last Saturday when he won all but one of the seven races on the card, and he is all set to launch another raid on the major prizes this weekend.

“We’ve made plenty of entries again,” Nicholls told At The Races. “We expect to have runners at Cheltenham, Chepstow and Southwell. We’ll decide closer to the weekend as to what runs.”

Colourful Life came home seven lengths in front of Tikram in the race last season, although in five runs since then he has only managed to complete once.

But Nicholls says he has been kept fresh with this race in mind.

“He ran in the Hennessy last time which was probably biting off more than we should have done,” he said.

“We’ve kept him fresh for this race, he goes well fresh and he likes a flat track. He’s on a career-high handicap mark but he’s in good nick.

“He’s goes on soft and it’s soft at the moment, but if it dries out it should be good to soft which will be fine.”

On Ladalko, he added: “I haven’t ruled Ladalko out yet. It’s a possibility for him and if he did run I’d probably get Colman Sweeney over to take a useful five pounds off as he won on him at Newbury.

“He has got the option of the Agfa Diamond Chase at Sandown the following Saturday but we’ll have a look at the race, see how he is and discuss it with the owners.”