To aficiandos of National Hunt racing, Paul Nicholls requires little or no introduction. Based at Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat, Somerset, he won the National Hunt Trainers’ Championship no fewer than 14 times between 2005/06 and 2022/23, his sequence interrupted by only Nicky Henderson and, more recently, by Willie Mullins.
Formerly stable jockey and assistant trainer to the late David Barons in Kingsbridge, Devon, Nicholls set up in his own right at Manor Farm Stables, which he rented from his “mentor, friend and adviser”, the late Paul Barber, in 1991. Starting out with just eight horses, he saddled his first winner, Olveston, ridden by Hywel Davies, in a novices’ handicap chase at Hereford on December 20, 1991.
Fast forward 27 years or so and, on April 18, 2019, Nicholls reached the landmark of 3,000 National Hunt winners on British soil, courtesy of Kupatana, ridden by Harry Cobden, in a mares’ novices’ handicap chase at Cheltenham. In so doing, he became just the third trainer in history, after Martin Pipe and Nicky Henderson, to achieve the feat. At the time of writing, Nicholls is on the cusp of becoming the most prolific British National Hunt trainer ever, with his eyes set firmly on the record 3,930 winners achieved by Martin Pipe.
Nicholls saddled his first Grade 1 winner, See More Indiams, owned by Paul Barber and ridden by Graham Bradley, in the Feltham Novices’ Chase at Kempton on December 27, 1993. He saddled his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Flagship Uberalles, ridden by Joe Tizzard, in the Arkle Challenge Trophy Novice Chase on March 16, 1999, quickly followed by his second and third, Call Equiname in the Queen Mother Champion Chase and See More Business in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, both ridden by Mick Fitzgerald.
Those three winners were sufficient to become leading trainer at the Cheltenham Festival for the first time and he did so again in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. On March 13, 2025, he reached a career half century of winners at the March showpiece, courtesty of Caldwell Potter, ridden by Harry Cobden, in the Jack Richards Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase. Nicholls has won the Queen Mother Champion Chase a co-record six times, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Stayers’ Hurdle four times apiece (another record in the case of the latter), the Ryanair Chase three times and the Champion Hurdle once.
