Paul Nicholls may have relinquished his Champion Trainers title in 2023/24, but last season was far from a disaster for the Ditcheat handler. Nicholls won £2,887,312 in total prize money and Grade 1 triumphs in the Challow Novices’ Hurdle and Ascot Chase would represent a hugely successful campaign by most standards. However, all that is now water under the bridge, with the latest National Hunt campaign already hitting its stride, as the race for the biggest pots and champion trainer honours begin once more.
Defending champion Willie Mullins and Nicholls’s former protégé Dan Skelton lie ahead of Nicholls in the betting for the National Hunt Trainers Championship However, it would be a surprise were Nicholls not involved in the race as it reaches the final furlong in spring 2025. He has, after all, lifted the trophy on 14 occasions in the past, and needs just one more to join the masterful Martin Pipe at the top of the all-time leaderboard.
If Nicholls is to regain his crown, he will likely need bold showings from stable stars such as Bravemansgame (who returns in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby on Saturday afternoon), Pic D’orhy, and Stage Star. That said, there is far more in the Ditcheat arsenal behind the established Grade 1 stars. Here, we look at five new recruits who may be primed and ready to send Nicholls’s prize money barometer moving in the right direction.
Act Of Innocence
Sired by the shock 2016 Prince Of Wales’s Stakes winner My Dream Boat, this recruit from the Irish Point-to-Point scene doesn’t immediately jump out on pedigree. However, it is early days for his sire. Only eight of his offspring have raced in the National Hunt sphere to date; half of that octet registering a win, headlined by the 130-rated Aeros Luck. Act Of Innocence is ranked among the winless quartet but showed plenty of promise to finish third in a hot Punchestown Bumper in April on his only start to date.
Belying his 80/1 odds that day, he travelled like a dream off the home bend, only for tiredness to take its toll on the run to the line. Moving to a yard adept at improving youngsters, it will be no surprise to see him go a couple of places better in the months to come.
Belliano
Irish Point-to-Point winners tend to fetch a pretty penny at the sales, and so it proved with this son of Black Sam Bellamy, who went for £255,000 at the Tatts Cheltenham December Sale. A six-length winner of his Point-to-Point at Boulta, that form was boosted when the third home, Additional Point, followed up by that same margin at Punchestown. Making his debut for his new yard at Chepstow in late October, Belliano finished a solid second to the highly regarded The New Lion.
That rates a fine effort on his first outing for 339 days, and he’s an intriguing addition to the Novice Hurdle division but may ultimately thrive over fences.
Miss Altea Blue
Nicholls has experienced considerable success with French recruits over the years – none more so than Kauto Star – and will hope he has another talent on his hands in this daughter of Great Pretender. Whilst without a win in four French outings, she finished a close second on her final two starts. The pick of those efforts seeing her finish ahead of subsequent 12-length Listed winner Murcia at Auteuil – with that filly now residing at the Closutton yard of Willie Mullins. By Great Pretender and out of the Grade 3 winning mare Miss Salsa Blue, she may be one to watch in events up to Listed level and possibly beyond.
Nardaran
By the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Waldgeist and out of the Group 3 winning mare Narniyn, this ex-Aga Khan runner is bred to excel on the flat. He received just one race to follow that path when running with credit to finish third in a 1m4f at Saint Cloud. Leading for a long way that day, he simply lacked the change of gear of the first two finishers, but with the winner, fourth, and seventh all winning since, the form looks solid. Looking to boast stamina as a strong suit, he may find the slower pace of the jumping game more to his liking as he sets out in juvenile hurdle events.
No Drama This End
It is often hard to weigh up form in British Point-to-Point contests, but No Drama This End can only beat what is in front of him. And he did so in some style when careering right away for a 23-length victory at Badbury Rings, prompting Tom Malone and Nicholls to shell out £160,000 to secure his services at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival sale. Bigger challenges lie ahead, but he’s sired by Walk In The Park (sire of Douvan, Jonbon, Min, and other stars) and out of the Grade 1 winning mare La Segnora, so looks to have every chance of progressing through the ranks.
