Kauto Star, Denman... just look what we had
Now Nicholls hopes for more Festival glory
IT only takes a minute to be in the courtyard of Paul Nicholls’ Ditcheat stables in Somerset to appreciate you are standing in an equine museum.
Pinned to stable doors are a barrage of green plaques, permanent reminders of great horses such as Denman and Big Buck’s and the great races they plundered. The greatest of them all, Kauto Star, won so many that his achievements require a separate wall to squeeze them all on.
Perhaps it is because Nicholls sees all this on a daily basis — and is so focused on the future — that he was unaware of the anniversary that beckons at the Cheltenham Festival next month: it will be 25 years since a tremendous treble transformed his fortunes and catapulted him into the big time.
‘What an amazing week that was… 25 years ago? Christ,’ says Nicholls, shaking his head. ‘When you start training, the only thing you want is a Cheltenham winner. What had I been training for then — eight years? I hadn’t had anything then three in three days. God bless us, what a week.’
It really was. Time marches on, never ending, but occasionally it makes sense to look back and understand how a journey took flight. For Nicholls, March 1999 was the point he came of age and the aching desperation to mix it at the meeting that matters most was realised.
Everything began with Flagship Uberalles responding to Joe Tizzard’s urgings in the Arkle Chase on day one; it rolled into day two, when Mick Fitzgerald delivered the fabulous but fragile grey Call Equiname perfectly in the Queen Mother Champion Chase before the piece de resistance.
Fitzgerald was again the man in the saddle on day three when See More Business — who had been forced out of the race by another horse when favourite 12 months earlier, leaving the ferociously ambitious Nicholls volcanic — defied odds of 16-1 to win the greatest race of them all, the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Nicholls, now 61, is a fantastic communicator, concise in everything he says, but here, for a few short seconds, you can see him drifting back as thoughts of parties and legends and what it all means take hold. This, essentially, is what it is all about. ‘That kick-started everything for us,’ says Nicholls. ‘I hadn’t thought about the significance of it being 25 years ago… We’ve had 48 Cheltenham winners since then. It would be nice to get to 50 this year, then, wouldn’t it?
‘It’s always hard to win at the Festival, it’s always competitive. You’re up against Gordon (Elliott) and since Willie (Mullins) has arrived with his battalions, it’s got harder really. But it’s all about having the right horses — that is the key thing.
‘I remember when Flagship won, we went down to the pub and had a bit of a party. I said to everyone, “We best enjoy this!”
‘Next day, Call Equiname goes and wins the Champion Chase. We repeated the previous night’s festivities! We couldn’t believe it. Next day See More did the business — we were in the pub for a week! It was just amazing. I couldn’t believe it had happened.
‘The feeling when you walk into that winners’ enclosure after you’ve won the Gold Cup is like nothing else, I promise you.
‘That’s the feeling that drives you on: you want it again. Over the years, you learn to savour it more. It’s hard to explain. There is a lot of pressure that comes with it, in terms of getting the horses right. It’s great to have those star names but there is a lot of pressure riding on you.’
And boy did he have star names. Cheltenham danced to Nicholls tune in the first decade of the century with horses that became public property. You couldn’t have imagined when Nicholls led Kauto Star back in 2009 that he would not have won a Gold Cup since.
‘You go back to 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 — look at who we had,’ says the 14-time champion trainer. ‘Kauto, Denman, Big Buck’s, Master Minded, Celestial Halo. We had the right horses. If you have got them, then you are going to be able to compete.
‘It’s like any team sport — you need the right players. But we’re getting there. When those horses were in that yard… yes they brought pressure because of the expectation but they were just amazing. We’ve just got to keep going to find the next generation. Hopefully we are.’
You can be sure he will not stop until he has succeeded. Evidence of Nicholls’ desire to unearth another superstar is found around the corner from where we talk, when Caldwell Potter — the £634,000 purchase sanctioned by Sir Alex Ferguson and his pals — pops his head over a door. He won’t run at Cheltenham but Nicholls will go to the Festival next month with a high-class team. To listen to him assess their prospects — and the bullishness with which he approaches his job — it would be a brave man to suggest the four days will pass by without success.
‘I have learnt over the years that you want a small, select team — horses that go there with chances,’ says Nicholls. ‘I don’t solely focus on Cheltenham. If they aren’t good enough, you are better off running elsewhere. But the ones we do run? They all have a chance of winning.’