Paul Nicholls hits back at Gordon Elliott 'duck and dive' claims

Paul Nicholls launched a passionate defence of the approach taken by British trainers to campaigning their horses after it was claimed they were hurting the sport due to an unwillingness to regularly run their best performers against each other.

The 13-time champion jumps trainer dismissed the suggestion from Gordon Elliott that British racing was being eclipsed by Ireland partly because trainers were able to “duck and dive each other the whole time” rather than regularly compete as he and his peers do.

Horses trained in Ireland have dominated British jump racing in recent seasons, as was evidenced when Irish trainers won 23 of the 28 races at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival.

At the meeting this year, Willie Mullins alone won ten of the 28 races with all seven races on the final day won by Irish trainers. In addition, the last four winners of the Randox Grand National have also been trained in Ireland, including Elliott’s dual winner Tiger Roll.

Elliott said on Monday that “there’s no hiding place in Ireland” and cited the example of Nicky Henderson running two of his best horses – Constitution Hill and Epatante – in the same race at Newcastle at the weekend as something that “doesn’t happen in England too often.”

He added: “We know when we go to the big races that we’ve got the best horses because you have to take each other on.”

However, Nicholls was not prepared to accept the point put forward by Elliott, instead saying British trainers were purely focused on ensuring their horses ran in races where they had the best chance of winning.

“I thought it was a load of bull****, we run our horses where we think it’s best for them,” Nicholls said. “We’re not frightened of anyone, we’re not ducking and diving and trying to avoid running against each other. I didn’t agree with a word of it.”

While Nicholls was forthright in defending the approach taken by him and his colleagues, several trainers contacted by the Racing Post on Tuesday chose not to make any comment.

Nicholls’ view was supported by fellow Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies, who said: “With our horses, we always try and go where they have the best chance of winning and where we think the prize-money is the best. It’s never our concern what the opposition is.

“I can’t speak for other people in terms of how they approach things or how they view what we’re doing, but we certainly don’t worry about what other people are doing with their horses. I think that’s the best way to be.”

Paul Nicholls: 'We run our horses in the races we think is best and it's as simple as that'Credit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Nicholls had been speaking at a Jockey Club press event on Tuesday as part of the build up to Saturday’s Betfair Tingle Creek Chase fixture at Sandown, where the trainer will be seeking a 13th victory in the Grade 1 with last year’s winner Greaneteen.

Saturday’s meeting also features the Grade 1 Close Brothers Henry VIII Novices’ Chase in which Nicholls has Monmiral entered, although the trainer indicated that the 2m3f Grade 2 Noel Novices’ Chase at Ascot on December 17 was a more likely option.

The switch to the Ascot contest, which Nicholls won last year with Pic d’Orhy, would mean Monmiral bypasses a second clash with Jonbon, the short-priced favourite for the Sporting Life Arkle at the Cheltenham Festival who thumped Monmiral by seven lengths at Warwick last time.

Asked if this was an example of Elliott’s assertion about British jump racing, Nicholls said: “We run our horses in the races we think is best for them and it’s as simple as that. With Monmiral, running over two miles at Sandown is probably too sharp for him and it’s as simple as that.

“I’m not sure I want to take on Jonbon on good ground as he looked like he had so much speed at Warwick. On softer ground that would not be as much of a concern, but it looks like it’s going to be a dry week at Sandown.

“We might go to Ascot for the Noel Novices’ Chase in a couple of weeks, but we’ll see. At the moment I’m open-minded about it.”

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