David ‘Dandy’ Nicholls
Flat race jockey who then trained winning sprinters at his yard on a former potato field near Thirsk
DAVID “DANDY” NICHOLLS, who has died aged 61, had a successful career as a flat racing jockey before turning to training – and in both roles was remarkable for his handling of sprinters.
As a rider, he was famous for his partnership with Soba, the winner of 11 sprint races in 1982. Soba (along with Chaplins Club, another smart sprinter ridden by Nicholls) was trained by David Chapman, and when persistent weight problems forced Nicholls to give up riding he applied the lessons he had learnt from Chapman, going on to surpass the record of his mentor.
Big sprint handicaps, over five or six furlongs, are a punter’s nightmare, and Nicholls could complicate the picture by electing to enter multiple runners – on one occasion, in 2003, he had a dozen horses contesting a single race at Goodwood. And he can certainly be said to have cleaned up in these highly competitive events, winning six Ayr Gold Cups and three Stewards’ Cups, as well as the Epsom Dash (five times), two Great St Wilfrid Handicaps and a Wokingham. It was a great achievement for a man who had had nothing more to draw on than his Yorkshire grit when building his training yard on an old potato field.
David Nicholls was born on April 30 1956 at Pudsey, Leeds. His father was often away, serving in the Navy, and by his early teens the young David was earning a reputation as a local hooligan. Aged 14 he left home, taking a bus from Leeds which deposited him at Wetherby. In a café there he met two boys who worked at the nearby stables of Deryck Bastiman, and they suggested that David, who knew nothing of horses, should join them. He learnt fast, and partnered his first racecourse winner, at Chester in 1973, when he was 17.
Nicholls was later apprenticed to Clifford Watts, near Bridlington, although he occasionally moonlighted as a lorry driver to earn more money. His days as an obscure northern-based jockey, however, came to an end after he joined David Chapman and was put on board Soba. In 1982 Nicholls rode the filly to 11 victories, including the Gosforth Park Cup and Stewards’ Cup. The next year she had the misfortune to compete against the remarkable sprinter Habibti, who beat her into second place in the July Cup, Nunthorpe Stakes, Vernons Sprint Cup and, finally, in the Prix de l’abbaye at Longchamp.
During his 20 years as a jockey, Nicholls partnered a total of 421 winners. But keeping down his weight became an unequal struggle. The Daily Telegraph’s racing correspondent Marcus Armytage, the former Grand National-winning jockey, recorded: “My best memory of him was in the sauna at Haydock one Friday night. He arrived in a sweat suit with a bottle of beer and two pasties, which he promptly ate. ‘How much have you got to lose?’ I inquired. ‘Five pounds before I ate that lot,’ he replied as he began skipping.”
Nicholls retired from riding in 1993. Never afraid of hard graft, he bought a potato field near Thirsk, and, with the help of a friend, gradually constructed his stables. For several years he and his family lived in a caravan while the work went on. Years later he said: “I never look over the garden wall at anyone else. I’m happy with what I’ve got and making my own bed.” At the peak of his career he had around 120 horses in training. He could be generous to his owners. For one, a woman suffering from a serious illness, he waived all training fees for more than two years.
His six Ayr Gold Cup winners were Bahamian Pirate (2000), Continent (2001), Funfair Wane (2002 and 2004), Regal Parade (2008) and Redford (2010), and he twice trained the first two home in the race. In 2002 Continent won both the July Cup at Newmarket and the Prix de l’abbaye. In the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood Nicholls won with Tayseer (2000), Gift Horse (2005) and Evens And Odds (2010); and his Epsom Dash winners were Ya Malak (1997), Rudi’s Pet (2002), Atlantic Viking (2003), Fire Up The Band (2005) and Indian Trail (2009).
The Group One Nunthorpe Stakes at York in 1997 saw Nicholls’s Ya Malak, ridden by his future wife Alex Greaves, dead-heat with Coastal Bluff. His horse Bahamian Pirate, which contested 104 races before retiring in 2007, won the Nunthorpe in 2004.
Nicholls also won the 2009 Haydock Sprint and the 2010 Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville with Regal Parade; the 2007 Palace House Stakes at Newmarket with Tax Free (2007); and the 2004 Wokingham Stakes at Ascot with Lafi.
In all he sent out 1,269 winners in Britain; his most successful season, with 93 winners, was in 2011.
In recent years Nicholls’s fortunes had waned, and he gave up training last March, citing financial problems and ill health. He told a voluntary liquidation meeting: “Unfortunately I was taken seriously ill with a condition diagnosed as haemochromatosis (iron overload) and after a period in hospital I found the condition and subsequent treatment extremely debilitating. This had a damaging effect on the business as I was not physically sound and not capable of being as effective as a trainer. We suffered with some owners losing faith, and the number of horses in training gradually declined.”
His last winner was Sovereign Debt, which won a Group Two race at Doha in February this year.
Nicholls was due to face trial in August charged with sexually assaulting two women in separate incidents, but strenuously denied both charges.
Dandy Nicholls married twice. With his first wife, Norma, from whom he was divorced, he had a daughter, Amy, and a son, Adrian, who rode as his father’s stable jockey and is now awaiting a licence to train on his own account. Nicholls also had a son, James, by another relationship. His children survive him with his second wife, Alex Greaves, the former champion lady jockey.