People seem to quickly forget that Nicholls had to chase down M Pipe and then won 10 trainers titles in 11 years. The man was as dominant from 2005-15 as Skelton will be in the next decade and won 3 consecutive Gold Cups, so talk of his success being due to a very young Skelton is pure nonsense. Where do you think Skelton absorbed all his tradecraft from ?- It was his showjumping legend Dad and one P Nicholls. All that’s happened is that the passage of time and the desertion or passing of some high profile owners has taken its toll.
The guy to watch out for is one Harry Derham (also a Nicholls mentee) – anyone that can take a very inexperienced novice to Punchestown and win a grade 1 against the top Irish boys in their own back yard knows what he’s doing. Munir and Souede haven’t hit the heights in the last few years so if they’ve any sense they’ll give this lad some more dough to buy some quality bloodstock.
