Nicholls in Ireland

Kauto Star and Noland are entered at Down Royal in the Nicholson and Killultagh Properties chases respectively. Worth about €125k (£90k?) if both should win.

It's not easy to see how his rivals are doing because the irish-racing.com trainers' table is a nonsense, which presumably is why the Racing Post hasn't yet produced a table for the current season. A bit of digging shows that last year's top 10 have current prize money as follows:

Harrington £252k
Swan £241
Meade £230
W Mullins £208
Martin £189
D Hughes £184
Nicholls £163
C Murphy £136
Moore £36
O'Grady £136
 
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Grasshopper said:
Col, I think it's more down to him wanting to avoid having to place his horses against each other in the UK, tbh.
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If that was the case, then why even mention the trainer's championship?

The events of a few years ago have completely soured my view of the whole trainer's championship concept to be honest, which is now nothing more than a nuisance in my book.

Leave the league tables to the Premiership I say!
 
Grey said:
Kauto Star and Noland are entered at Down Royal in the Nicholson and Killultagh Properties chases respectively. Worth about €125k (£90k?) if both should win.

It's not easy to see how his rivals are doing because the irish-racing.com trainers' table is a nonsense, which presumably is why the Racing Post hasn't yet produced a table for the current season. A bit of digging shows that last year's top 10 have current prize money as follows:

Harrington £252k
Swan £241
Meade £230
W Mullins £208
Martin £189
D Hughes £184
Nicholls £163
C Murphy £136
Moore £36
O'Grady £136
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For the current season and not including today’s wins:

Meade: 325,032.50
Mullins: 291,780.00
Paul Nicholls: 226,000
 
For the current season and not including today’s wins:

Meade: 325,032.50
Mullins: 291,780.00
Paul Nicholls: 226,000
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The difference being that your figures are in euro while mine, taken from the RP database, are in sterling.
 
The current top ten, amounts in sterling:

Meade: £292
Harrington: £281
Nicholls: £253
Swan: £245
McNamara: £223
Mullins: £215
Martin: £209
Hughes: £198
Nolan: £178
O'Grady: £169
 
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Someone who's connected to Noland over at TRF has informed the forum that Noland goes to Punchestown on 7th December for his next start (presume that's the John Durkan?).
 
William Hill were offering Nicholls at 11/4 but they seem to have removed it.
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I have a bet with William Hill at these odds for Nicholls to be champion NH trainer in Ireland this season. I have a nasty feeling, however, that the title is officially decided on number of winners rather than prize money. Maybe that's why they've withdrawn their price?

They haven't cancelled my bet, however.
 
I remembered reading after KS and Noland won that he was cut to 9/4 or something. The title is based on prizemoney not winners.
 
Indeed, and he has a few entries for Fairyhouse next weekend (American Trilogy, Kicks For Free, Elusive Dream and Breedsbreeze) and Punchestown the week after (Noland and Natal).

Meanwhile Noel Meade has gone into a lead of about 100k so Nicholls would need to win perhaps two of the races he has targeted over the next couple of weeks.
 
Meade, Harrington, Swan, Hughes and Mullins are now all ahead of Nicholls. Mullins yard is only getting going now while Meades has been flying for a while. Nicholls will need to winning lots of Grade 1s to even stay in contention.

American Trilogy, Elusive Dream are unlikely runners see as they have run recently (one this weekend) while Breedsbreeze and Kicks For Free are in the same race and neither will be favourite for it as it is such a strong event.

Noland and Natal are obviously interesting but The Listener will be back to defend his title and of course Nicholls will be out Walsh for a while also. He will need an exceptional Leopardstown Festival if he is to have any chance.

Meade is actually around 200,000 euro ahead of Nicholls now.
 
trackside528 said:
I'd be very interested in Noland in the Durkin.
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I think Noland will go off too short in the Durkan if he does run. Fingeronthepulse got lost his race before the start the last day and finished a tired horse, Skys The Limit looked to dog it.

I hope people dismiss The Listener again after his last run, because I think the Durkan trip suits him best and he will relish the testing conditions.
 
Gal, I've just checked the figures. Meade has 387k and Nicholls has 254k, in sterling. So Nicholls definitely needs to win two of races he's targeting over the next couple of weeks to stay comfortably in touch.

It's true that the stables you mention are also up there, but in terms of winning the Irish title it is a help to Nicholls if his competitors are all gaining similar shares of the prize money. It's like a football team being pleased when the other teams in their group can only draw with each other.
 
Galileo said:
I think Noland will go off too short in the Durkan if he does run. Fingeronthepulse got lost his race before the start the last day and finished a tired horse, Skys The Limit looked to dog it.

I hope people dismiss The Listener again after his last run, because I think the Durkan trip suits him best and he will relish the testing conditions.
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I'll go back and watch it again Gal, but I remember being of the impression that the Taafe horse ran his race that day, sticking on well when headed. He did look to sweat up fairly badly but that wouldn't be a first and he put in a spectacular round of jumping.

Given that Nicholls felt Noland would come on for the Down Royal run, he rates as the horse to beat in the Durkin IMO.
 
Thanks for the link. You're right, the gap in euro is much greater than the RP database's figures in sterling would imply. The exchange rate they're using is obviously well out of date.

There is no stable dominant in Ireland the way Nicholls is in the UK, and the leading handful of stables in Ireland don't dominate in Ireland to anything like the extent of the leading quartet in the UK of Nicholls, Pipe, King and Hobbs. For as long as this continues Nicholls's objective is made easier.
 
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