The newly turned professional horse racing trainer based in Gloucestershire is full of hope for the upcoming jumps season, believing his novice hurdlers and also his older handicap chasers are on for a big campaign.
Nicholls has recently joined veteran trainer Kim Bailey’s professional racing license after serving over a decade as his assistant, with Bailey slowly looking to hand the reigns over as turns 73 on the 24th of May.
“We are very keen on The Jukebox King, the racing syndicate horse. He does everything nicely and won his only point to point.
“He’s from a good stallion and he’s a novice we’ll be looking forward to.”
The six-year old has 3000 shares for sale to the public for just £70 , giving racing fans a great chance to get involved in ownership, and most recently finished second in a eight runner field in Wincanton.
“Of the older horses, The Kemble Brewery could be very exciting, he’s a nice handicap chaser that we definitely like.”
The Kemble Brewery has followed up on Nicholls’ expectations by winning last time out at Chepstow as a 6/4f, under a cool ride from Tom Bellamy.
Bellamy has been at the centre of attention himself recently after gaining Nicholls his first Cheltenham Festival winner when onboard White Noise, winning incredibly at 40/1 odds.
“Another nice horse is Homemade Hero who’s a nice novice, he does things very nicely and you can see we are very heavy on novice hurdlers this year.
“A lot of our older horses are facing retirement or injuries, so we just have to deal with it.”
Chianti Classico is a horse recently retired by the yard that epitomises just how tough the sport of horse racing can be, after being forced into retirement at just seven years old due to a tendon injury.
He was one of the best to come from the yard in recent years, with a career highlight being an epic Cheltenham Festival victory in 2024, beating a string of Willie Mullins and Gordan Elliot horses in the process.
“There are several ways retirement can be forced, injuries can catch up to them or they might not be moving how they used to.
“Sometimes they might just not be enjoying it, if a horse isn’t enjoying their racing then what’s the point in forcing a horse to do something that they don’t want to do.
“We’ve got a 12 year-old Two for Gold who is still the freshest horse in the yard every single day, and the same with Does he Know who is 11.
“As long as they are still full of life and enjoying racing and their aches and pains haven’t caught up with them, then we keep them going.”
Retirement doesn’t mean horses are thrown to the side at Thorndale Farm however, as Bailey ensures the horses are given away to homes who will care for them each and every day.
“Horses that leave here are rehomed, Kim’s wife sorts that and they all have a contract saying they are going to a new home and they can’t be sold or raced again.
“Hopefully they have a nice retirement for years to come.”
