Gollings lashes Order of Merit proposals

Sod it - Simon, I think it's pretty dishonest to claim that Nicholls has stolen horses from other yards, and when you're called on it claim that you didn't mean to slag him off, edit your post to that effect, and then claim that those calling you on it have "a very strange view of what slagging someone off is."
 
I edited my post because I didn't think what I put looked right and could easily be misread. I don't want to slag off Mr Nicholls I think he's a wonderful trainer. End of.
 
That's the reason I edited it, as I've said. I realised it looked bad and didn't want it to because I respect Mr Nicholls as a trainer and all the ability he has as a horseman.
 
The Order of Merit served its purpose in providing more competitive racing throughout the NH season "proper". Before that we were only seeing the halfway decent horses 2/3 times a year - usually after Christmas - in the build-up to the Festival or Aintree.

While the idea of promoting more competitive racing seems to have been primarily a marketing ploy to attract more racegoers, the organisers did have a point in that, for about 4/5 years before the OoM was instigated, quite a lot of the racing before Christmas had become very mediocre. As a regular at Cheltenham, I certainly noticed the difference in the quality of the fields over a period of 8/9 years.

The OoM served its purpose in that, certainly regarding the chasers, the quality of early-season fields improved dramatically (as did numbers) - the October meeting at Cheltenham at one point just seemed an extension of summer jumping.

However, if the new points system is going to reduce the chances of horses from smaller yards winning, it does completely defeat the object as the OoM was originally instigated to increase the competitiveness of NH racing, the appeal of which has always been that anyone from a duchess to a cab driver has the chance of owning and racing a potential superstar.

I'm all for an incentive to get the better horses out more often, but not if the competition is only going to be attainable by the top yards with more firepower.
 
If owners want to send their horses to the best in the business then who´s to stop them?

If trainers such as Gollings (who is by no means a bad trainer) want the likes of Denman, Kauto, Neptune C, Celestial Halo then they need to strive to be the best. Remember the days when Nicholls was training crocks like Young Deveraux and Call Equiname - he wasn´t an overnight success and he had to work at it. Now he´s at the top and can afford to shell out major cash via Bromley and has owners who want to do the same.
 
People who want to sell horses, Breeders, pin-hookers etc know where to go first with a good one in order to achieve the best price . He not only is a very good trainer but he is also a good business man. So many trainers haven't a notion (or care little) about the business end of it.
 
That is very true Sheikh. I've heard that Nicholls' buying policy is pretty ruthless... The point is with big money behind you (and Nicholls has always had that in Paul Barber) it's possible to have people trawling foreign jurisdictions for you, to secure the services of the best bloodstock agents, and thereby to snap up the best horses before they come properly on the market. Alan King btw has largely followed Nichaolls' example (they are very good mates) and now also finds horses in France which he buys privately.

This isn't a criticism btw, I like and admire both trainers a great deal. But the fact is that without some of the 'big money' owners behind you, it's very hard indeed to compete in the current climate; the West Country yards also have the advantage of having a lot of tracks in their vicinity which is handy for owners, travelling to the races being such a pain these days and so expensive.

There is undoubtedly a 'fashion' element at work here as well - 'big' players (and would-be big players!!) like to be with the top yard/s which makes it even tougher for perfectly good trainers like Gollings, Hen Knight etc etc - there are plenty more. Their biggest problem is that it's getting increasingly hard for them to get their hands on a good horse to show what they can do, and this has its repercussions
 
Irish Stamp said:
If owners want to send their horses to the best in the business then who´s to stop them?

If trainers such as Gollings (who is by no means a bad trainer) want the likes of Denman, Kauto, Neptune C, Celestial Halo then they need to strive to be the best. Remember the days when Nicholls was training crocks like Young Deveraux and Call Equiname - he wasn´t an overnight success and he had to work at it. Now he´s at the top and can afford to shell out major cash via Bromley and has owners who want to do the same.
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The difference is, as has already been said, it's all in the owners and who's behind them. I'm sure location plays a part, because I doubt there are as many wealthy individuals in Lincolnshire as in the West Country.
Gollings is also a clever businessman. He has other racing related businesses, rather than just the training of horses and other businesses outside of racing even. This means he is in a healthy financial position and isn't scraping around. What I think he could do with, to be honest, is one of the bigger owners Ogden, Hemmings etc to send him a horse or two and get him noticed a bit more. But, then again, he won the Order of Merit and that didn't get him many, if any, new owners so I don't know what will.
 
Simon said:
Gollings is also a clever businessman. He has other racing related businesses, rather than just the training of horses and other businesses outside of racing even. This means he is in a healthy financial position and isn't scraping around. What I think he could do with, to be honest, is one of the bigger owners Ogden, Hemmings etc to send him a horse or two and get him noticed a bit more. But, then again, he won the Order of Merit and that didn't get him many, if any, new owners so I don't know what will.
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Firstly, Gollings is not the only trainer who is in a healthy financial position so doesn't have to train in order to make money. Plenty of others have the similar 'insight' as Gollings so are equally as "clever businessman". He's not the only one.

Secondly, although your constant championing of Gollings is probably admirable, it's getting tiresome now - on more than one forum. Most trainers could do with Ogden or Hemmings sending them a horse but one cannot force any owner to place a horse with a trainer and I'm sure that Ogden and Hemmings have their own reasons for not sending Gollings a yard full of horses and to be quite frank your interminable assertions that the guy is God is probably doing his reputation more harm than good - does he know that you're obsessed with banging on about him ad-infinitum on the internet?
 
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I am also aware that many, many, many trainers are in huge amounts of debt and struggling to make ends meet.
 
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