Paul Nicholls is preparing himself for “a right scrap” with Colin Tizzard over the trainers’ championship in the wake of his rival’s extraordinary success this week. Tizzard had the first two home in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day, won another Grade One with a 33-1 shot that same afternoon and landed the Welsh Grand National the following day, cutting Nicholls’ title-race lead in half.
In the circumstances the reigning champion of British jumps racing is just happy to have his nose in front. Having won a Listed race with Coillte Lass here on Friday, Nicholls pointed to that situation with some pride: “After all the winners he’s had we’re still £200,000 in front.”
This is not to suggest there is any tension between the two men, whose bases are only 15 miles apart, Nicholls a little to the north of Wincanton, Tizzard a little to the south. Two decades ago they went racing together on the day that Joe, Tizzard’s son and now his assistant, rode his first winner, a memory that Nicholls dredged up here.
“It’ll be a lot of fun for the West Country,” he said of the impending battle, while insisting that no friendships are at stake. “Pauline and Colin, I’ve known for years. Joe’s a great mate of mine. He’s done well and he’s obviously a big influence on the set-up there. We’re all jealous he’s got those horses.”
Nicholls knows what it is like to dominate, having had Kauto Star, Denman, Master Minded and Big Buck’s in adjacent boxes not many years ago. “He’s in a great position with these wonderful horses at the moment. It’s funny how, for whatever reason, they just appear and you make the most of it.”
There might be a soupcon of wistful-ness since Nicholls is not so well supplied with top-class types these days, which made it all the more impressive that he was able to defend his title against a determined Willie Mullins last season.
“It’s hard to win the trainer’s championship without having a lot of Grade One horses. If you’ve got those, it’s easy. You’ve won it by February. But last year it was a right scrap and it’ll be the same this year.”
Nicholls has numbers on his side, having reached 100 winners for the season on Thursday, the first time he has got to that landmark before the turn of the year. Tizzard, meanwhile, has had only 38 but has been farming the most valuable, his other successes including the Betfair, the Hennessy, the Old Roan and the Shloer.
Thanks to Thistlecrack and Cue Card, he seems to have an unbeatable hand for the Cheltenham Gold Cup at the Festival in March and, as Nicholls pointed out, “That’s £320,000 in one go!”
One bookmaker makes Tizzard 8-13 to win the race, in which he might also run Native River and Alary. Even so, his rival’s mood is anything but defeatist.
“We’ve got 120 to run and a lot of new horses,” Nicholls said. “OK, I might not have a Gold Cup runner this year but we’ll keep going right to the very end of the season, like we did last year.”
Among those horses who may pick up a useful chunk of prize money at some stage is Silviniaco Conti, whose third place in the King George was not far off his best form, delighting his trainer. Nicholls attributes the chestnut’s recovered form to a day’s hunting the week before Kempton and pulled out his mobile phone to show pictures of the horse clearing a hedge so big that the groundline is out of shot.
“He had three hours out and he jumped anything and everything. It did him a world of good.” ‘Conti’ will be aimed at the mid-February Ascot Chase, which he won last season.
But the one every trainer would dearly love to have is Thistlecrack, who earns the highest praise Nicholls can offer. “He reminded me very much of Kauto, the way he travelled and jumped and did everything the other day.
“He’s good but, you know, a five-runner King George in a slowish time is a little bit different from what a fast-run Gold Cup with 18 runners will be. And he is a bit steppy at one or two fences still. My view is that there’s nothing that’ll beat him in the Gold Cup. The only thing that might beat him is the fences.”
