EIGHTY-year-old James Niblett's love of horses has given him a lifelong love affair with racing.

He has spent hours poring over the pedigrees and breeding lines of all types of horses and it paid off handsomely this week as his Booth's Steel team raced off with the first prize in our popular Naps competition.

James, along with team-mates Chris McCormick and Tom and Doreen Yates, take the Bolton Evening News Naps Trophy along with a cheque for £500 donated by the competition sponsors, Farnworth timber merchants Anthony Axford.

It was a 25-1 winner two weeks ago that catapulted the team into top spot but before that they pulled out some other long-odds successes, including a 33-1 shot, a14-1 winner and another at 11-1.

And according to James, the way to unearth big winners like that lies in a horse's breeding.

"I don't bother with form," he explained, "I just spend hours looking up the blood lines and breeding lists of the entries.

"I have a number of good racing reference books and spend a lot of my time checking out the runners. I don't bet a lot, the real satisfaction for me coming when all my studies end with my selection going first past the post, whatever the price."

The team have been regular entrants in the competition and finished second five years ago.

They have now gone one better and the team, former employees of the now closed Booth's Steel firm on St Helens, Road, Bolton, are already settting their sights on another first - to become the only team to claim a second Bolton Evening News Naps title.

It has been a fascinating competition with the lead changing hands several times.

Booth's Steel reached top spot on the back of just four wins and the 33-1 choice on Week 8 which put them into the Top 10 for the first time.

First day leaders were Tenerife Four (who finished 10th) with an 11-1 winner, but by the second week a 20-1 shot was showing the standard needed to make an impact.

By May, Mustangs (2nd) were in front after two successive wins at 9-1 and 11-1, then Caught Napping (3rd) took over at the end of the month with a 20-1 choice.

Tenerife Four continued to make the headlines with a 600-1 treble over three successive weekends, but in June we had our biggest winner of the season when Quicksilver (32) napped a 40-1 winner at Haydock Park.

At the halfway stage Caught Napping were in front, with Tenerife Four, Mustangs, Booth's Steel and Judith's Jockeys (13th) close on their heels.

By September, long time leaders Caught Napping had been overtaken by Mustangs, but the following month a 12-1 selection put Caught Napping back on top. Booth's Steel were idling along in eighth spot at this time.

And they pounced in Week 32 when Demi Beau raced home at Newbury at the competition-winning price of 25-1.

Now all they had to do was wait, and hope. And on Saturday none of their rivals was quite good enough.

But praise here for Mustangs who jumped up to second with 14-1 Harry the Hoover, while Taxidermists' (47th) choice of Parknasillato was a close second - at 50-1, the starting price for last year's final day shock winner LLamedosmake.

For the record 61 teams finished in the black and will be entered automatically for next year's competition, 16 teams finished winless throughout the 34 week season, and Paul's Piano (90th) had the most winners (11), but finished in the red!