Focused Nicholls clocks up record seasonal haul
Poliantis, Bal De Nuit and Indien Royal, all ridden by Ruby Walsh to secure a 48-1 treble, gave Nicholls a total of 139 winners in Britain since the current jump season kicked off last spring.
Poliantis, who secured the record under an assuredly dominate ride to beat Fondmort in the Grade Two handicap chase, Bal De Nuit, winner of the juvenile hurdle, and Indien Royal, who took the novices handicap hurdle, have finished for this season. Nicholls, however, maintains considerable strength to deploy on both sides of the Irish Sea - and even over the Sea Of Japan.
Underfoot conditions will, according to Nicholls, apply the greatest significance to the number sent to the Punchestown Festival.
In the Grade One contests, the trainer intends to saddle Cenkos for the BMW Champion Chase and See More Business in the Punchestown Heineken Gold Cup on the first and second day, respectively. On the third afternoon he plans to run Sporazene, an impressive winner at Ayr, in the IAWS Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle and Le Roi Miguel, a Grade One winner at Aintree, in the Swordlestown Cup Novice Chase.
"We'll have to see what the ground is. Cenkos would go, as he wouldn't mind fast ground, but if it was very quick there he might be the only runner," Nicholls said. "If the ground is all right I might chuck some of the others in the handicaps.
"There's a lot of racing here at Perth and Sandown next week, and we'll run plenty at those. My horses seem to run well at this time of year, so we'll keep going here."
Nicholls' hopes are pitched farther afield than Scotland or Ireland this Saturday, when in the early hours Armaturk lines up under Joe Tizzard in the Nakajama Grand Jump. Tizzard flies to Tokyo, some 60 miles from the course, this morning.
The race's title translates to "inside the mountain" and Nicholls has no doubts of the heights Armaturk must scale.
"He's been schooling and is in good order.”
