When a final measure is taken of Paul Nicholls’ training career, the greatest single achievement might be his victory in the trainers’ championship last season, when his no-star team somehow held off a determined assault by Willie Mullins’ astonishing army of talent. But with the core jumps season once more on the horizon, the Somerset man is making no bullish predictions about a title defence.
Indeed, he sounded slightly doubtful about it last week, shooting the breeze over lunch in his local, the Manor Inn, a short step down the lane from his stables. The champion trainer, now 54, was relaxed as he usually is in early autumn, with Cheltenham’s first race meeting still more than a month off, having plenty of time to focus on his 128 horses, none of whom have disappointed him yet. Still, there is realism in his expectations.
“It’s going to be a tough season. I’ve got a lot of young horses, lots and lots of young horses, which we had last year. Not many Grade One horses at the moment, we’ve got to get that next generation.
“I always insist I’m not setting out to win the trainers’ championship. You’ve just got a nice bunch of horses and if you get in that situation, of course you give it a go.
“Having had 111 Grade Ones already and all those good horses, I can hardly complain. I’ve been so lucky to win the 10 championships and whether you win one or two or three more, or no more, it doesn’t actually make a massive difference now. We’ll just do the best we can with what we’ve got. You’re only as good as your team, same as a football team. You know you’ve got a good setup and everything works.”
Nicholls does not have horses for the Gold Cup, the Champion Chase or the Champion Hurdle unless one of his handsome youngsters shows unexpected improvement. The high points of last season came with horses such as Old Guard, punching way above his weight to win three times at Cheltenham before Christmas, and Vicente, landing April’s Scottish National at 14-1 to pull the trainers’ title out of the fire.
That will have to be the way of it once more because it is Mullins who has the big-spending owners to provide him with some of the best raw material. Nicholls recalls that in the days when he sourced Kauto Star, Master Minded, Big Buck’s and Neptune Collonges from France, there was much less competition for such types from other British or Irish trainers.
They may each have cost more than a quarter of a million euros, but he describes them as “probably the cheapest horses ever bought … the prize money they won was phenomenal. But you knew they were good as long as you did your job right.
“They’d had seven or eight runs, you knew they were top class when you bought them. Now in France, they have one run or two runs and you’ve got to buy them because if you don’t someone else will. Horses that go seven or eight runs without being sold must have had a problem. They literally get sold on their debut. You’re taking a massive chance because a year down the line, that form could be useless.”
November will bring the 25th anniversary of Nicholls’ first runner, so this is not a bad time to reflect on the ways the game has changed. But despite those changes he has consistently gathered in more than £2m in prize money for the last 14 seasons, maintaining a strike rate of 20% or higher since 1995 and, title or not, he is a good bet to keep going at that level.
Silviniaco Conti is one of the horses most likely to help him do so this winter, despite having reached the age of 10. Twice a King George winner, his last season was blighted by problems with sarcoids, lumps on the skin, which limited his ability to train and may have been a key cause of his disappointing run in the Betfair Chase.
While sarcoids never disappear completely, Nicholls believes that Silviniaco’s are currently dormant. “We were treading on egg shells all along, training him, I think we only had him right once last year. But now we’ve started off with no problems at all, getting a lot of hard work in him.” He will go to Down Royal in early November for a three-mile race, accompanied by Le Mercurey, who will try to give Nicholls an eighth success in nine years in the Powers Irish Whiskey Chase.
Zarkandar and Irish Saint, both missing last winter through injury, are back in full training and expected to contribute from early autumn. Others who ran only sparingly, like Dodging Bullets and Aux Ptits Soins, are reportedly in rude health. The latter is an exciting prospect for novice chases, as is Politologue, who also carries the yellow colours of John Hales.
Nicholls has long been among the most communicative of trainers and those seeking detail on all his horses in training can find it in the 98-page brochure he now sells through his website, the profits from which go to charities including the Injured Jockeys Fund.
His is a team long on depth and perhaps the quality will emerge over time. But Mullins is not his only concern, as Nicholls expresses much respect for the Warwickshire stable of his former assistant, Dan Skelton, where the facilities have been built up by investment from the trainer’s father, Nick, a gold-medal winner in the Olympic show jumping this summer.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Dan was to challenge for the trainer’s championship, if not this year then in the years to come,” Nicholls said. “He’ll be thinking, just upgrade his horses a bit and … He’s got some good horses now. He’ll be right up there.
“I bet he’s not 66-1 next year for the championship. He might not be 66-1 halfway through this season. They’ve done well and good luck to them.”
