Nicholls in good place without Ruby or Kauto
IT HAS ALL changed, changed utterly, in the yard of Paul Nicholls over the past year or so. Kauto Star, the superstar of his stable, retired last winter. And then Ruby Walsh left as his retained jockey, to focus on his incredibly successful partnership with Willie Mullins.
With neither Walsh or Kauto, it was looking like the tide had turned against the trainer and he might find it hard to regain past glories. When that happens in sport, it can be impossibly difficult to turn it back. Just ask Frankie Dettori.
Nicholls admits that losing Walsh was a wrench, especially as his relationship with the jockey coincided with seven glorious years as Champion trainer in the UK.
‘I’ve got to say last year was a pretty tough one for a few different reasons and we felt a bit jaded by the end, though you soon perk up.
‘Ruby Walsh leaving was tough and then my long-time assistant Dan Skelton started training, but we are in a new era now with some big changes,’ Nicholls said.
Losing a rare talent, like Walsh, put doubts in Nicholls’ head. After being toppled by Nicky Henderson as champion trainer last season, Nicholls, normally the most postive of characters, even shared those doubts with guests at his annual owners’ day in September that he had no chance of reclaiming his crown this season.
However, less than three months later, without Walsh, he leads his rivals with a formidable team primed for the Christmas period led by Al Ferof and Silviniaco Conti in the King George V1 Chase.
‘I have to admit I’m astounded that we are heading the table in December. I didn’t think it could happen so soon,’ he said with disarming candour. ‘Nicky’s horses have not been firing and things change if you lose a big guns like I did last season.
‘Our results suggests the new management team is working very nicely. We were behind in October when some of the horses ran dire. But in the last month they have been running really well.
‘Everyone thinks we are back in with a chance of winning the title but the time to worry about that is after Cheltenham. That is the meeting where it is decided.
‘And if we win it this season, we will have done as well as ever because we don’t have those mega super stars that we had before.
‘What we do have is a lot of horses that are hitting the jackpot on Saturdays. We are dead happy with an exciting team for the future.’
Nicholls was speaking l ast Wednesday morning after watching his King George duo breeze busily along his all-weather gallop.
It’s clear he did not take kindly to being unseated as champion trainer. He’s always been compulsively competitive and retains all the drive and ambition that prevents him settling for second best.
‘I love what I do, always have done and can’t wait to get up in the morning,’ he said. ‘It is a different challenge. At the moment I am enjoying training more than I ever have.
‘People probably won’t believe me when I say the championship is not everything. Of course I’d like to be win it again but it is not what motivates me. Never has been.
‘I get a great thrill from bringing horses like Al Ferof and Big Bucks back from injury. Winning with There’s No Panic at Sandown recently after all his problems gave me so much pleasure.’
Kauto Star, successful in the King George an astonishing five times, is retired but Big Bucks is giving the right signals ahead of his return to action next month. Nicholls offers an interesting comparison. ‘Kauto was a wonderful horse, so versatile. But ability-wise Big Bucks is every bit as good though he never jumped a fence as well as him.’
‘Kauto was the horse of a lifetime. To get another to do what he did would be impossible. But we’ll keep trying to find one like him.’