'We'll have him mad fresh on the day' - Paul Nicholls' horse-by-horse guide to his Cheltenham Festival team
Lewis Porteous gets the lowdown on Paul Nicholls' squad for the Cheltenham Festival
In his own words champion trainer Paul Nicholls is preparing a "small but select" team for the Cheltenham Festival, but the one thing punters can be assured of is that there will be no social runners on the Ditcheat team sheet.
Nicholls has never lost sight of the fact that there are plenty of big races outside the festival to target but, make no mistake about it, he is still passionate about conquering at the biggest meeting of them all.
"We've probably got a small but select team this year, but I'm happy with that and I'm not going to go mad," says Nicholls. "You've got to be selective and run horses with chances, otherwise you completely waste their season and waste owners' time. You've got to be sensible and I'm dead happy to go there with the horses I've got."
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Published on inStable Tours
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Copy- 'He's bigger, stronger, definitely getting better - and he'll be a classy horse going back into handicaps'
- 'Our novice chasers are as good as anyone's in Britain - and this one is a proper horse'
- 'Having a winner at the Cheltenham Festival last season made a big difference - and this might be one for the same race'
- 'We're working back from the Gold Cup - he's a massive horse and lightly raced, so we hope there's more improvement to come'
- 'We're excited about him - we hope he's a Graded horse and we're working back from the Cheltenham Festival'
- 'He's bigger, stronger, definitely getting better - and he'll be a classy horse going back into handicaps'
- 'Our novice chasers are as good as anyone's in Britain - and this one is a proper horse'
- 'Having a winner at the Cheltenham Festival last season made a big difference - and this might be one for the same race'
- 'We're working back from the Gold Cup - he's a massive horse and lightly raced, so we hope there's more improvement to come'
- 'We're excited about him - we hope he's a Graded horse and we're working back from the Cheltenham Festival'