Denman 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup Four-time World Hurdle winner Big Buck’s Kauto Star Five-time King George VI Chase and two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner

Welcome to

Paul Nicholls Racing

Welcome to the website of Paul Nicholls Racing which contains a wealth of detail on all aspects of our training operation at Ditcheat. Paul has changed the face of jump racing since he arrived here in October 1991 with eight horses and a notably positive attitude in his relentless pursuit of success. Over 3,500 winners have followed his initial victory with Olveston part owned by his mother, at Hereford a few days short of Christmas 1991. A double at Newton Abbot on Boxing Day offered further evidence that the talented young trainer was on his way and he ended his first season with ten winners.

During the time Paul won 119 races as a jump jockey he was always looking ahead to the day when he could try his hand as a trainer. All he needed was a chance. It came from Ditcheat farmer Paul Barber who chose him from more than a dozen applicants.

Single minded to the point of obsession, the eager young trainer acknowledged that he had plenty to learn and was not afraid to make mistakes. It helped no end that from the start he has been supported to the hilt by his new landlord.
In the years that followed Paul NIcholls’ accumulation of glory has included close on 150 Grade 1 winners, thirteen trainers’ championships, four Cheltenham Gold Cups, a Grand National and the King George V1 Chase an astonishing twelve times.

He has delivered a century of winners for the last twenty one seasons at a consistently high strike record and recorded a personal best total of 176 in 2020-21.
Paul was immensely proud to be awarded an OBE in the New Year’s Honours list in 2020. That followed a lengthy visit to the yard by the late Queen who spent time meeting his family and staff and inspecting at close quarters some of his better known horses.

Late in April this year he saved the best to last of another prolific campaign by training five of the seven winners at Sandown on the final day of the season.
Earlier in his career he handled a quartet of champions at the same time with a rare sureness of touch as Kauto Star, Master Minded, Denman and Big Buck’s carried all before them in the races that matter most in the jumping calendar.
Horses of such rare quality don’t come along too often and once they retired the task of finding replacements proved challenging. Yet soon Silviniaco Conti, Dodging Bullets, Politologue and several others proved well up to the task at the highest level.
More recently Paul has developed an increasingly fruitful system by annually securing at the sales a number of beautifully bred young store horses that he hopes to develop into the stars of the future. His brigade of three and four years olds start their education with record breaking Point-to-Point champion Will Biddick before taking the next step in bumpers the following season.
This firmly established conveyor belt of raw, natural equine talent continues to pay rich dividends. McFabulous, Knappers Hill, Stage Star and Henri The Second are among the latest group of graduates to shine with two dozen or more promising types yet to be seen on a racecourse.

Paul frequently pays tribute to Team Ditcheat, the talented and hard working members of staff led by his long time head lad and assistant Clifford Baker who turn out in all weathers to keep the show on the road. Clifford is the first man into the yard in the morning and the last to leave at night.
Leading by example the duo expect and maintain the highest standards at all times. Short cuts are not an option. Only the best will do for the 150 horses at Ditcheat and at the trainer’s own yard nearby at Alhampton.

After more than thirty years with a licence Paul is still searching restlessly for ways to improve and enhance the art of producing winners. All weather gallops are repaired,  surfaces topped up, boxes upgraded, the outdoor schooling arena has been improved and a new mechanical horse walker now stands on the site which was once Paul Barber’s vegetable garden.
Paul’s appetite for success remains a keen as ever and he is understandably excited by his current stable stars including Greaneteen, Bravemansgame, Hitman, McFabulous, Gelino Bello and the prolific Frodon, with a classy crop of young prospects making their way through the ranks.
You can read about them on our website where you can also to get to know the skilled and dedicated members of Team Ditcheat including Charlie Davies, who has stepped up to be assistant trainer, our travelling head girl Julie Batho, plus Natalie Parker, now pupil assistant and Conor Houlihan, who joined us in the summer.
Our high achieving squad of top jockeys is led by Harry Cobden, Bryony Frost and Lorcan Williams ably supported by Angus Cheleda & Tom Buckley, our young conditional Freddie Gingell and our amateurs Freddie Gordon and Charlie Sprake.
We pride ourselves on providing the best level of care for our horses and hope that comes through as you take a virtual look round our operation.

Politologue

Statistics

TOTAL TRAINED NATIONAL HUNT WINNERS 3,622
GB Winners 3,590
2023-24 NH SEASON
Winners 7
Strike Rate 23%
Prize Money £66,559
GRADED WINNERS
Grade 1 145
Grade 2 267
Grade 3 65
Listed 96

PAUL NICHOLLS RACING

NOTABLE WINNERS
Cheltenham Festival 48
Cheltenham Gold Cup 4
King George VI Chase 13
Grand National 1
Flat 18

LATEST NEWS

  • Paul Barber

    Jump racing lost one of its greatest supporters with ...  Read More

  • Another successful season and another trainers’ championship

    We secured our fourteenth trainers’ championship title ...  Read More

  • Monday 24th April

    We head into the final week of the season in a buoyant ...  Read More

  • Monday 17th April

    With less than a fortnight until the final day of the ...  Read More

  • Monday 10th April

    We head to Aintree this week without Clan Des Obeaux ...  Read More

  • Monday 3rd April

    We ended one of our quietest weeks of the season with a ...  Read More