Mike Cattermole reflects on a visit to Ditcheat where he caught up with the Nicholls clan, as well as a major Cheltenham Gold Cup hope.
NICHOLLS TEAM BUZZING
I couldn’t make the official Paul Nicholls press open day this week but obviously read the upbeat reports and, having popped down there on Thursday with my old Sporting Life colleague Geoff Lester, I can confirm that the air of optimism and expectation about the place is palpable.
Not that there isn’t ever a sense of purpose down at Manor Farm Stables at any time. However, with the likes of Cyrname and Clan Des Obeaux leading from the front, backed up by a team with an obvious huge strength in depth, the signs are very definitely there for a vintage spring.
Nicholls was kidding when he said that he may yet supplement Cyrname for the Ryanair (the chaser wouldn’t be ready in time), but sending him left-handed to see whether his recent massive improvement can be sustained going that way is very much in the pipeline. Neither Nicholls nor Clifford Baker, his long-serving right-hand man, has any concern about that whatsoever.
Neither does the trainer’s father, Brian, who hosted our visit in his usual amiable and attentive way. He said: "Cyrname is a different horse to what he used to be. He was a right tearaway but has now grown up and what a turn of foot he has!"
Although Clan Des Obeaux was in his box, you didn’t need to be a horse whisperer to know he is clearly in tip-top order. His skin glowed with such a bright sheen and you just know he is going to be ready to run for his life in a fortnight’s time.
The trainer commented: "It’s funny as before the King George, everybody said what a great race it was. Then after, they all said that the race wasn’t any good! But he absolutely hacked up there and I was delighted with him at Ascot."
Clan Des Obeaux and Cyrname are not small horses by any means but they are not as big as Topofthegame who is very ready to go in the RSA Chase and is clearly a favourite of the trainer’s.
Black Corton is at the other end of the physical scale but what he lacks in size, he makes up for in tenacity. However, he won’t be at Cheltenham and instead heads up to Kelso this Saturday for the Belhaven Brewery Premier Chase, worth over £34,000 to the winner.
Likely to be joining him for the long journey o’er the border will be Getaway Trump whose target is the Grade Two Edinburgh Gin Premier Novices’ Hurdle.
I had Getaway Trump on my shortlist for the Coral Cup but the Nicholls team have the recent 25/1 Ascot scorer, and rarely seen, Brio Conti pencilled in for that. He is certainly an intriguing contender.
Watching the horses school over the fences in the ring there is never anything but thrilling and half a dozen young ones were put through their jumping paces by the likes of Bryony Frost, Harry Skelton and Nick Scholfield who has just returned to riding out this week after a knee injury.
Unfortunately, Nick had a tumble but seemed none the worse for it and then got to sit on a very nice son of Getaway called Is A Real Champ. Runner-up in a point, he quickly knew the drill and is definitely one to watch out for when he makes his debut under Rules.
Nicholls must be delighted at the way his new system of sourcing and buying is working. Once a regular purchaser of the crème de la crème of young French-breds, which already had decent form (Kauto Star being the best example), these days he has changed tack a bit and gone for unexposed store horses. His loyal team of owners have literally bought into this ideology.
I can’t help thinking that Nicky Henderson will have a real battle to retain his trainers’ championship over this and the next season.
RATHVINDEN RIGHT ON TARGET FOR THE NATIONAL
When Rathvinden finished third to his stablemate Faugheen in the Neptune Novices’ Hurdle at the 2014 Cheltenham Festival, he went into many notebooks as an exciting prospect.
However, due to various injury issues, he wasn’t seen again for over 1,000 days and it took another four years before he went two better at Cheltenham by winning last year’s four-mile NH Chase.
Not that it was easy as he was a bit wobbly as he was pulling up and Patrick Mullins swiftly dismounted.
It was quite a comeback but even better was to come at Fairyhouse last Saturday when he booked his ticket to the Grand National by hacking up in the Bobbyjo Chase, giving Willie Mullins his eighth winner of the race.
Hedgehunter was the first of them back in 2005 and we all know what he did next.
Indeed, Rathvinden fits the profile of many a National winner, one with a top-class talent whose progress may have been interrupted more than once by injury. It means that they often get a chance by the handicapper.
He reminds me a little of Royal Athlete, winner of the race in 1995 as a 12-year-old who had as much class as he had rotten luck with injuries and who had been third two years earlier in the Gold Cup, no less.
JENNY REMAINS IN VERY GOOD FORM
Speaking of which, I paid Jenny Pitman a visit this week to talk to her about her incredible career for an upcoming Sky Sports Racing “Legends” feature. And a proper legend she is, too.
Twenty years on after retiring from training, Jen is in great form – so too is her husband Dave Stait – and had plenty to say, as ever. In fact, the editing suite will be kept busy for a few days, I can tell you.
When you look back at her achievements during a vintage era, it really is quite incredible. Two Gold Cups, two Grand Nationals, three Welsh Nationals, wins in the Scottish, Irish and Midlands versions, too, plus a King George VI Chase and a Hennessy.
Taking her on at the time? Only the likes of Fred Winter, Fulke Walwyn, Martin Pipe, Nicky Henderson and David Nicholson in the south and then Michael Dickinson, Arthur Stephenson, Peter Easterby and Gordon Richards up north!
Yet she still became one of the most successful trainers of all time.