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Paul Nicholls, Silver Birch

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  • #51816
    Avatar photoSeven Towers
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    • Total Posts 608

    Kauto Star was off injured for 9 months and he didn’t get "shunted of elswehere." I would argue that many top trainers get crap horses to win, that’s usually what gets them into the position of being a top trainer to begin with.

    #51817
    Aragorn
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    • Total Posts 2208

    Venn Ottery? Crap or Good? 😉 😎

    #51818
    Avatar photobeckster
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    • Total Posts 292

    no quite but would it be the same if kauto was injured to be forced into retiremeant?i dont think so really… ie jessica harrington never forgets moscow, like ginger didunt forget redrum, thats all that was meaNT…..

    #51819
    Avatar photobeckster
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    • Total Posts 292

    well paul nicholls always had the support of paul barber so he never struggled its alot easier for a trainer starting out if they  have an owner like that right from the start!!!!!!!!!!!  Also Paul Barber owned half of silver birch and as far as i know hes still married………….and as for whitford don he might have been running of a much lower mark but he was obviously alot happier as he won without blinkers they always said he was ungenuine and would stop as soon as he hit the front but he won by 10 lengths with clare ENOUGH SAID……

    #6878
    davidjohnson
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    • Total Posts 4491

    The thread about whether Clive Smith is a gambler got me thinking about this and it relates to Paul Nicholls coumn in the Racing Post. Plenty of people are happy to slap Nicholls on the back for his openness but such openness has led to him telling everyone that Denman needed the run in the Hennessy, that Twist Magic wouldn’t go on soft ground and that Gungadu couldn’t win the Racing Post Chase.

    Is there any chance that Nicholls tells the public what he wants to tell them and tells his owners something else?

    #146895
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    • Total Posts 17716

    Definitely thought so before the Hennessey DJ, having been aware of the amount of work he had put into Denman, even going to the trouble of giving him a racecourse gallop during his preparation.
    Not surprised to see him play down Gungadu on Saturday either; Harry Findlays assertion that he wasn’t backing him was probably a clue also, considering he appears the type to bet on the proverbial two flies.

    #146897
    clivex
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    • Total Posts 3420

    If he was putting punters away to aid gambling owners, surely the market would have been wise to who was getting on? Both gungadu and Denman drifted and were longer at sp than earlier in the week

    The answer IMO is no

    #146898
    Anonymous
    Inactive
    • Total Posts 17716

    Clivex

    Whose interests do you think are given precedence?
    I am all for PN’s open attitude with press and TV, likewise PCH’s on the flat, but it’s naive to think owners (and their gambling interests) aren’t priority.

    #146899
    Ugly Mare
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    • Total Posts 1294

    lol….in my household whatever Mr Nicholls says we tend to go with the opposite.

    On a related note, Mr Findlay can’t half ‘bunny’ :x

    #146900
    Avatar photoGingertipster
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    • Total Posts 31545

    Dammed if he does, dammed if he doesn’t.
    Trainers are not that good at form study, they do not know who is going to win, nobody does before the race.
    Gungadu idles when in front and therefore difficult for even his trainer to know how much in hand he had.
    The only time when PN’s team did put us away (unintentionally) was when Turko won at Sandown (or was it Kempton). As far as I know, he did not tell the public about the operation the horse had after its previous run.

    Ginge

    Value Is Everything
    #146901
    Flash
    Member
    • Total Posts 1144

    I think its more a case of Paul Nicholls being shrewd enough to know the nature of horse racing. All the unbeatables can get beaten and I think in that type of profession it becomes second nature to be a little cautious.

    If I were PN I wouldn’t be coming out telling the public I had a near cert and run the risk of a lynching when it gets stuffed thirty lengths.

    #146905
    Fist of Fury 2k8
    Member
    • Total Posts 2930

    True Flash but he’s even shrewder than that is PN

    PN reminds of Tony Blair wathces which way the crowd is running then jumps to the front and says follow me.

    He does alot of pre-protection work on his own behalf………….he makes statements like those mentioned or his favourite ones like I think 2m5f might be on the shrap side for Kauto these days but we have to run him somewhere.

    Which of course we all know to be absilute BS as Kauto could win at 2 miles never mind 2m5f.

    But that gives him a ready made excuse if the horse gets beat and it doesn’t make him look stupid as he did warn everyone beforehand.

    Denman wasn’t as fit as Kauto was another one………he’ll refer back to tht one if Kauto is beaten by Denman…God forbid :wink:

    #146906
    Oh So Sharp
    Member
    • Total Posts 86

    I think its more a case of Paul Nicholls being shrewd enough to know the nature of horse racing. All the unbeatables can get beaten and I think in that type of profession it becomes second nature to be a little cautious.

    If I were PN I wouldn’t be coming out telling the public I had a near cert and run the risk of a lynching when it gets stuffed thirty lengths.

    PN has a ‘column’ on teletext C4 which appears on Thurs/Fri each week and has done so for a number of years.

    Previously, he would talk briefly about each of his runners and would give his best bet or the horse with the best chance of winning. Over the past couple of months, the ‘Have Your Say’ section open to the public, have been serverly critisizing him ‘most of his other runners won but not his best bet of the day’ or ‘he cost me a Lucky 15, I should have put his other horse in instead’ etc……..and over the last few weeks, I’ve noticed that he has omitted using the ‘best bet’ term…..probably doesn’t want the aggro…

    #146907
    clivex
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    • Total Posts 3420

    Not surprised to see him play down Gungadu on Saturday either; Harry Findlays assertion that he wasn’t backing him was probably a clue also, considering he appears the type to bet on the proverbial two flies

    I ask again….

    why was there no movement in the market?

    #146911
    LetsGetRacing
    Member
    • Total Posts 1147

    Compared to Jonjo, who yesterday had ‘no idea’ why Exotic Dancer was taken out of the betting for the Gold Cup yet announced today that he had tweaked his back (and led Barry Simpson to say that any such hold-up, whilst small, casts doubt as to his participation), Nicholls is an absolute saint.

    #146912
    Avatar photoAndrew Hughes
    Member
    • Total Posts 1904

    His statements regarding Twist Magic and soft ground led me to oppose that horse in the conditions and as a result, I ignored what he had to say last Saturday on Gungadu. I wasn’t all that convinced about his comments on Kauto Star definitely needing further after the Old Roan defeat in the autumn either.

    But I don’t detect any intention to mislead. He communicates a great deal, in fact it appears you can hardly shut the man up, but volume does not mean quality. I will always read what he has to say but I will look for corroborating evidence in future.

    On balance, I agree with LGR, I’d rather have trainers talking and trying to inform than signing the official secrets act. It was just a lesson learned personally not to take everything at face value.

    #146913
    Avatar photoaaronizneez
    Participant
    • Total Posts 1750

    OK clivex, imagine the trainer of the Gold Cup favourite telling the public that the horse had a suspected sprained fetlock which sees that horse go from nearly odds on to 11/2 in places and then when someone qualified looks at it sometime later they say hang on its only an infection ( in this time there is a reported 3-4 hundred thousand traded on the exchanges alone possibly due to this news. )

    Imagine the furore on here if the master at Jackdaws did a similar thing. Wait a minute….. :wink:

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