It is an indication of the exceptionally high standards at Paul Nicholls\u2019s Ditcheat yard over the past quarter of a century that two third-place finishes in the jumps trainers\u2019 championship, with at least \u00a32.5m banked in prize money in each campaign, have prompted something of a reset before the new season over jumps, which begins in earnest at Cheltenham on Friday.<\/p>\n
Nicholls will have three assistants at the stable this season, including his daughter Olive while his oldest daughter, Megan, has also joined the team and is sourcing new recruits for Ditcheat. Nicholls has won 14 titles and trained more than 3,800 winners since taking out a licence in 1991.<\/p>\n
It is a fresh challenge for Megan Nicholls, who rode 110 winners on the Flat before carving out a career as a presenter on ITV Racing and Racing TV. It is a natural development of an interest in breeding and bloodstock from her riding career rather than an entirely new departure.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re looking for horses every day,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s not a new thing for me. When I rode on the Flat I was interested in the pedigrees and that side of things. While I was buying more horses on the Flat initially, I\u2019ve been working alongside my cousin, Harry Derham, and Dan Skelton as well. It just depends which horse is suitable for which team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve bought a few young horses that probably won\u2019t be on the track this season, or until the spring, but we\u2019ve also filled the orders that were there [from owners] and [bloodstock agents] Anthony Bromley and Tom Malone have been involved and continuing to buy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to be taking over the whole thing, I\u2019ll just be more involved and it\u2019s opened it up to the floor a bit more. We\u2019ll be trying to find the right horses for the various owners that Dad has rather than it just being a one-man band.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several promising horses switched from Ditcheat to rival yards over the summer, including Ginny\u2019s Destiny, a three-time winner at Cheltenham in the 2023-24 season, and the promising hurdler Kabral Du Mathan. \u201cWe\u2019d done well for them [Gordon and Su Hall, the owners of Ginny\u2019s Destiny] and I thought we were good friends,\u201d Paul Nicholls told Racing TV\u2019s Luck On Sunday. \u201cI didn\u2019t get a phone call, I just got a text to say they weren\u2019t coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Megan Nicholls rode 110 winners in her career on the Flat. Photograph: PA Images\/Alamy<\/p>\n
The owners that have remained loyal have been a priority over the summer, although competing with the sourcing and purchasing might of rivals such as Willie Mullins, the reigning champion over jumps in Britain and Ireland, is increasingly difficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a case of rebuilding confidence for the owners,\u201d Megan says. \u201cGetting them horses that can win and trying to just move with the times a little bit. The good horses are one, very expensive and two, get snapped up very quickly, so you\u2019ve got to have someone who\u2019s ready to strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t get them all the time because not everyone\u2019s always ready. It\u2019s just a game of patience and when we do have someone ready, we find them the right horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to buy a horse, you\u2019re not thinking about anyone else. You\u2019re trying to buy it because you like it, not because you\u2019re trying to outdo someone else. You\u2019ve got to stick to your guns and to what you think is right. Just because you think someone else is interested, that doesn\u2019t mean you should up your bid.\u201d<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Her checklist when looking at a possible purchase changes according to the code. \u201cIt\u2019s physical over pedigree certainly over jumps,\u201d she says, \u201cbecause you\u2019re not looking for a stallion at the end of the day. The physical side of things is a priority. I want them to be as correct as possible through their limbs and an athletic type of horse.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t like really big, heavy horses. I prefer a more athletic model, but other people do often prefer the very big, typical \u2018three-mile chaser\u2019 if you like. But soundness is key and if you can buy a horse that has a heart and willingness to go with it, you\u2019re halfway there.\u201d<\/p>\n The Nicholls stable is less than 100 winners away from overtaking Martin Pipe\u2019s all-time record of 3,930 jumps winners in Britain and on course to become the first to saddle 4,000 within a couple of years. At present, though, a record-equalling 15th championship is a more distant prospect.<\/p>\n \u201cWillie has got a phenomenal group of horses at the moment,\u201d Megan says, \u201cand there\u2019s other strong teams too, like Dan Skelton, Gordon Elliott and Nicky Henderson, and Olly Murphy\u2019s coming through, so I think Dad\u2019s main aim now would be to get the 4,000 winners.<\/p>\n \u201cDo I believe that it\u2019s possible for him to win the championship again? Probably not. But do I believe we can still have high-quality and top-class horses within the stable that are winning and being very competitive in top-class races? Yes, absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is an indication of the exceptionally high standards at Paul Nicholls\u2019s Ditcheat yard over the past quarter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-524639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115428981772221852","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}