‘It all starts at the sales’

NICKY was just 12 when his parents moved to Greystoke in Cumbria from Northumberland. His father had only five horses at the time but one of them was the super-talented Playlord.

He says: “It was my last year at the village school and I then went to the big school at Penrith. But school wasn’t for me. I just wanted to be around horses.

“I went to Ireland aged

15 to spend the summer with Kevin Prendergast.

“It was a great learning curve. He is a master trainer and a great man. I can ring him and ask him if I have something niggling in my mind. Peter Easterby is the same. Their knowledge is out of this world.”

Nicky rode the brilliant

1969 King George VI Chase winner Titus Oates in his home work and recalls Playlord as “probably the best ever Scottish National winner”. Playlord was also third in the 1969 Cheltenham Gold Cup and Nicky adds.

He adds: “My father (Gordon, below, with One Man) had some great horses. He bought Sea Pigeon for Pat Muldoon. Peter Easterby ended up with him and the rest is history. Noddy’s Ryde was a great horse. Very fast. Little Bay and Four Trix and also Tartan Tailor, who won the Supreme at Cheltenham.

“Back then the north was like the south now. The money and training powerhouses were up in the north. Arthur Stephenson was training 100 winners before Martin Pipe had been heard of. My father trained 100 winners two or three times. And he did it with 100 horses, not 200.

“Last year there was a bit of a turning point when northern trainers had some big Saturday winners. The big Saturdays is where we need to showcase our horses and skills. Jedd O’Keeffe and Ruth Jefferson won Grade Ones. We showed we’re not complete back numbers.

“But as Gordon Elliott said, it all starts in the sale ring. If you win in the sale ring, you generally win on the racetrack.”