Although the National Hunt season is on the low burner during the summer months, there’s still plenty of action to be enjoyed over the fences here at Stratford.
We hold racedays throughout July and August, with one such meeting in July providing Paul Nicholls with a rare summer treble.
And he’ll be hoping this early season form can act as a springboard for success throughout the rest of the campaign, even if former assistant, now rival, Dan Skelton, has embraced the summer campaign to give himself a £200,000 championship head start on his former boss.
The big time
Many UK bookmakers offer betting odds for races taking place weeks and months ahead – these are their ‘ante post’ markets.
So you can wager on the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Grand National and many other big races in advance via the Paddy Power horse racing odds – and Nicholls is expected to be a key player in many of the most prestigious renewals this season.
The sports betting guides for the King George VI Chase will no doubt feature Bravemansgame, the current 14/1 chance that won this Grade I race in 2022 and followed up by finishing second for Nicholls in the 2023 edition.
Pic D’Orhy, who has won the Ascot Chase and Melling Chase since April 2023, is another big-time player on the National Hunt’s Grade One calendar, while Ginny’s Destiny has triumphed twice at Cheltenham and was a close second to Grey Dawning in the Turners Novices’ Chase there at the Festival in March.
Others, such as Rubaud, Stage Star and Stay Away Fay, will also be geared by Nicholls towards the big races in 2024/25 – will they deliver under the spotlight and add to the trainer’s incredible history in the sport? Two of these three returned to Ditcheat last month after a dispersal sale by leading Nicholls owner Chris Giles, who is scaling back, having been bought by other owners in the yard.
Sounding the horn
Nicholls’ Manor Farm Stables yard has been in excellent form this summer; a status that has been on full display at Stratford in recent times.
His six-year-old, Matterhorn, has particularly enjoyed the track here at the racecourse. He was a really handy winner in the Davisons Law Anniversary Novices’ Handicap Chase on July 2, running out a 12-length winner and justifying his 8/11 favouritism.
A couple of weeks later, Nicholls returned with a strong squad for the next Stratford raceday, with Matterhorn again front and centre in his gang of contenders.
This time, he was favourite for the John Murtagh 60th Birthday Handicap Chase. And with ace jockey Nico de Boinville on board in place of the injured Harry Cobden, Matterhorn once again lived up to the billing, romping away by eight lengths to bank his connections a handsome £13,000 payday.
So Matterhorn is undoubtedly a horse to watch in the rest of 2024 and into next year, but he’s not the only Nicholls winner at Stratford this summer.
Brave Knight defied a handicap that saw him as the second top weight horse in the field in the Ladies Day Winners Novices’ Hurdle, winning by more than nine lengths in a truly impressive showing.
Soir de Gala made it a hat-trick for Nicholls at our July 21 raceday. The French horse, again with De Boinville in the saddle, travelled well throughout and, after asserting dominance at the business end of the race, was driven on to complete a four-and-a-half length victory.
What a great summer it’s been for Nicholls at Stratford; 4 of his 17 winners to date have been chez nous. What else will the 2024/25 season have in store?
