Poor stable form a head scratcher for Paul Nicholls

Paul Nicholls insists he will "crack on" as he battles to come through a rare dry spell since the turn of the year.

The champion trainer has suffered some high-profile disappointments in recent weeks and his usually impressive strike rate (23% this season) is down at just 5% for the last fortnight.

Frodon and Greaneteen failed to give their true running at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown at the weekend while Pic D'Orhy also disappointed in the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown.

Nicholls has no planned runners until Thursday at the earliest, however, he says until test results tell him something is definitely wrong with his horses, all he can do is run them when they are giving him the right signs at home ahead of another big weekend coming up at Newbury.

"What is the right thing and what is the wrong thing to do? If I had a good reason not to run them, if they showed they weren’t right, we wouldn’t entertain running them," said Nicholls.

"I asked Scott Marshall this morning, who rides both Clan Des Obeaux and Bravemansgame, what they felt like and he said they were in great order, they worked brilliant on Saturday.

"It’s difficult, some of the ones we’ve run you can put a line through – some ran back a bit quick, we wanted to go to Ireland with the two and then the ground went against them and you can always look into things a bit too much.

"Dolos won at the weekend, one or two ran disappointing and we’re trying to find out why, but if you don’t run then you can’t find anything, we won’t turn the corner if we keep ducking the issue. If the guys who ride them every day say they are well, then we should be running them."

Frodon and Greaneteen had already won Grade Ones this season but Nicholls felt rain on watered