BRIAN O'CONNOR on the making of the man who has 're-written the training book'
MOST JOCKEYS dread the moment they have to retire, either due to the ever-present threat of serious injury or their nerve goes. Paul Nicholls, however, looked at a broken leg as a blessed relief.
“Take me straight to hospital where I can get something to eat,” he later recalled as his response to the incident that ended his career.
Nicholls was a decent jockey, too. There may have been a relatively meagre haul of 180 winners, but they included some notable victories, including an English Hennessy on Broadheath and an Irish Hennessy on the top-class Playschool.
But keeping his weight under control became a torture.
Looking at the burly figure now, it’s easy to see why. The policeman’s son could pass a physical to patrol any beat in uniform. And even behind riding those big-race winners was the realisation that training was what he really wanted to do.
So much was obvious even as a teenager, when he deliberately got himself fired from a bakery job by rolling doughnuts in salt and not sugar. Despite no family background in the sport besides watching it on TV with his grandfather, racing, and specifically training, was always going to be Nicholls’ avenue to success.
Achieving that success has been hugely important to the 47-year-old. An intensely ambitious man, he has emerged from starting with just eight horses in 1991 to becoming champion trainer and being in possession of the finest stable of horses in Britain.
Today evidence of that dominance is written all over the Gold Cup. Nicholls sends five horses into action, including the last two winners, Denman and Kauto Star, as well as Neptune Collonges, who filled out a 1-2-3 last year. It’s 10 years since he saddled See More Business to also win chasing’s most coveted prize.
“You cannot do this job properly unless you are seriously competitive,” he once admitted, and that is something that is recognised by his contemporaries.
Tom Taaffe, a Gold Cup-winner himself with Kicking King four years ago, says: “Paul is a very driven guy. He has always set his sights high and, fair dues to him, he has attained this position by his own self-belief and professionalism.
“He’s a perfectionist and he surrounds himself with the best people, be it head lads, jockeys, whoever. The key thing to remember is that none of it has happened by accident. He has re-written the training book.”
Not that such a history counts for anything to him on the lead-in to such a day: “The most important race is always the next one you are going to win.”
He has described his favourite way of unwinding from racing as going to a point to point, but Nicholls can look up and smell the roses, literally, too. He is a keen gardener, and a fan of Manchester United. He trained What A Friend to run for Alex Ferguson in Wednesday’s RSA Chase.
He has also visited United’s training ground at Carrington and observed: “Some of what they do there is similar to us, blood tests, fitness work and so on.”
It’s doubtful, though, if Ferguson feels for Ronaldo what the trainer feels for today’s Gold Cup favourite, Kauto Star, who will try to become the first horse to reclaim the Gold Cup crown. Nicholls has a soft spot for the horse and can be thin-skinned when it comes to criticism of his triple-King George hero.
“He’s in very good form. Two weeks ago he worked with Celestial Halo, who was second in the Champion Hurdle, and a week ago he worked with Master Minded. We’ve worked out he is best running fresh and he must have a very good chance.”
Certainly every permutation of Kauto Star’s preparation will have been teased out, and it’s that sort of perfectionism that makes Nicholls rate him as short as 1 to 2 to win a fourth Gold Cup today.
It’s much shorter about the trainer’s appetite for success being sated by it, though.
