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Racing Post just tweeted that Jacob has turned down the role of no.2 jockey to Paul Nicholls and will go freelance, with Sam Twiston-Davies taking the retainer. STD will keep the ride on The New One.
Interesting timing as I doubt Nicholls will have many runners for the next few months anyway.
Feel sorry for Daryl Jacob as this happens as he is still recovering from that fall.
Paul Nicholls’ column
Sam Twiston-Davies will be the number one stable jockey at Ditcheat next season.
He will have the pick of our team, with the exception that Noel (Fehily) keeps the ride on Silviniaco Conti. But it is also a two-way street as regards the top horses, and we have agreed that Sam will continue to partner The New One for his father for next season.
I told Daryl (Jacob) of the decision on Friday, when I also offered him the number two job. He then took the weekend to think it through, and he came back to me today to say that he would rather go freelance.
But I have to stress that there has been no falling out, and Daryl will continue to ride out and school a couple of times a week here next season, and will ride for us when the opportunities arise, which I am sure they will.
Nick (Scholfield) will be our number two, and I am also keen to give Harry (Derham) more rides. Both are young jockeys who have done well for us this season and, with Sam, Noel and Daryl, I would like to think that we have a very strong hand on the jockey front.
And, with so many big meetings clashing and the inevitable injuries, you need a strong squad of jockeys to call upon.
In fairness STD is a far better jockey than Jacob so it was just a matter of time before he got the chop.
When you are Champion trainer you need the best jockeys and sadly Jacob is not one of them.
I wonder how long Nicholls will persevere with Schofield as number 2 as IMHO he is not up to that classWill he be number 1 for Dicheat next year …..looks weak in every driving finish I see …
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imo
Good bit of foresight there Ricky,well done.
Thanks Kingy , much appreciated , for ages I have thought Daryl was struggling , to be fair Twister has been riding out of his skin , and in my view, only Ruby and Barry G would be on top as of now , his progress and strength in the saddle has been amazing
Good luck to Daryl , a decent man , here’s hoping things take a turn for the better , as for Twister , sit back and enjoy , he is some baby for sure !!
Yet again Mr Nicholls is shown to be lacking in class by kicking a man when he is down.
Loyalty is an important quality and the mark of a man and this particularly stinks as Daryl Jacob is out injured and emerges with a lot of class for seemingly telling Nicholls where he can stick his job as the stable number 2.
There was no need to dump Jacob ,STD could have been brought in alongside and they could have shared the rides even if the ultimate intention was to phase Jacob out but to dump him for no reason while he is out injured is a poor reflection on Nicholls and not how a gentleman behaves.
Those sort of decisions have nothing to do with gentlemanliness. It’s a business, and PN needs to make decisions that are best for the business, some of which will be tough ones. Goes with the territory. Some win, some lose.
My only worry for STD is that he reacts badly to twitter abuse. It gets to him when someone’s nasty, but he’ll toughen up and get used to that.
My heart really goes out to Daryl Jacob. That look of sheer agony etched on his face after the Pertemps was certainly one the most enduring memories from this year’s festival. I hope he does get a change of luck sooner rather than later.
Regarding the timing of his sacking, while clearly not a perfect gentleman (men as successful as the champion trainer seldom are), I feel it was a case of "damned if you do" for Paul Nicholls. Nobody likes to kick someone whilst they’re down, but by the same token, nobody likes drawing out another person’s agonising uncertainty. Particularly not over a long summer on the sidelines. All considered, the chosen action was probably the most humane.
At least now, Daryl can focus on his next steps regarding the upcoming season.
The real test of this partnership will come when STD falls off a couple of their big hopes, or goes down in a couple of driving finishes, as naturally happens to most jockeys in the course of a season.
At least the pressure if off in a lot of respects. There are no major stable stars for the jockey to be judged by at the moment, so things can only get better.
Never really viewed Jacob as number 1 material for a top yard. Nicholls has some powerful self made businessmen as his big owners who are hard to please.
Over the years Murphy (self inflicted), Tizzard, Thomas, Heard and Williams have fallen by the wayside and Jacob just joins the list.
The Big Bucks business showed that Jacob knew the horse was gone at the game but he would be blamed.
Unfortunate that he got fired while recovering from serious multiple injuries but there is no sentiment in jump racing anymore.
Good on him in a way for telling Nicholls what to do with his number 2 job. I’m not a fan of Scholfield and increased use of Derham is just nepotism.Never heard what happened to Liam Heard, still see him riding but not as much as he used to, I thought he was good enough when he was with Nicholls.
I think Ryan Mahon is a very competent and underrated rider, surprised he doesn’t ride more for Nicholls, maybe because he isn’t family…
I wonder how soon Nicholls will get fed up of Sam T-D and find someone else to take over the poisoned chalice as his No1 rider.
Poor daryl! I quite agree that STD is a top jockey but Nicholls treatment of jockeys stinks IMO. Hardly been given a fair crack at the job and totally agree with others glad he has told him where to stick being number 2.
Best of luck in what’s next daryl!
I find this decision very surprising. I though Daryl Jacob was really growing into the job and gave some horses great rides, in particular Wonderful Charm’s winning sequence in Novice Chases, and Just A Par at Newbury.
Twiston-Davies seems to have modelled his style on Ruby, quiet, sitting still as long as possible, but unlike Ruby he hasn’t the tactical skill and goes from statue like to panic stricken in an instance. His riding of The New One has left plenty to be desired, again going too soon at Aintree and nearly getting beat (obviously doesn’t learn from his mistakes) and giving the horse too much to do at Cheltenham (I appreciate he was hampered by Our Conor but he took far too long to take decisive remedial action).
He is the current darling of the media and whatever cock up he makes we are meant to feel sorry for him and look elsewhere for the blame. One recent ride in particular on Frontier Vic at Taunton sums up perfectly his lack of tactical awareness, leaving his horse far too much to do and then losing all chance with a mistake at the last.
Can’t see the comparison with Ruby Walsh at all.
Horses pulling too hard and making too many mistakes. Plus a lack of subtlety. Far closer to AP in my opinion.
There is no doubt he will boot home plenty of midweek winners (just like AP) but the real test of the partnership will be the big occasions. At this moment I don’t see him improving a great deal on Jacob.
Unless there was something else involved with Liam Heard’s departure, he was probably of no further use once he rode out his claim.
Nicholls gave him a chance after the Granit Jack disaster by putting him on Neptune Collonges in the CGA Chase, but a sequence of other falls (Lamanver Homerun probably the final straw) marked him down as a little short of the required standard.
Whilst Sam is overall the more talented jockey, he himself is still prone to lack of composure in the big races.
Any impartial viewing of the Christmas Hurdle might lead you to think the Nicholls job might have come at least 12 months too early for STD.
Anyway, good luck to both Sam and Daryl next year.
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