Paul Nicholls targeting becoming the first man to train 4,000 winners over jumps

Trainer Paul Nicholls has set his sights on becoming the first man to train 4,000 winners over jumps after securing his thirteenth Trainers’ Championship with a show-stopping 410-1 five-timer on Jump Finale day at Sandown.

Wins with Greaneteen, who landed the Grade One Celebration Chase for the second 12 months working, Saint Calvados in the Oaksey Chase, McFabulous in the Select Hurdle, Knappers Hill in the novices’ handicap hurdle and Samarrive in the concluding handicap hurdle took Nicholls to 142 wins for the season and three,454 wins in a coaching profession which began in 1991.

The 2021-22 season has not been straight-forward for Nicholls, who failed to have a winner at the Cheltenham Festival, however he continues to set the commonplace to intention at in British Jump racing regardless of the fixed problem of Nicky Henderson and the more and more potent problem to his crown from his former assistant Dan Skelton.

Paul Nicholls loved an excellent Jump Finale day at Sandown as he had 5 winners

Greaneteen claimed victory in the Grade One Celebration Chase for the second 12 months working

Nicholls, whose prizemoney haul for the marketing campaign has topped £2.9million, now wants two extra titles to equal the document of 15 set by Martin Pipe. Nicholls, 60, stated: ‘I’d love to train 4,000 winners. No soar coach has executed that. That could be good. It is doable if I preserve going and I nonetheless completely love the problem. I’m no totally different to how I used to be 20 years in the past. Championships are the finish product of quite a lot of exhausting work by lots of people.

‘It has been a little bit of a tricky season. We had been a bit quiet after Christmas when the horses weren’t working in addition to I might have appreciated however we have now nonetheless ended up with greater than 140 winners and an enormous quantity of prizemoney.

‘Any season if you’ve gained the championship you’ve got executed properly. The groups beneath you’ll at all times strive to catch you and obtain what you’ve executed.’

Saint Calvados was amongst the different horses to ship success for Nicholls on Saturday

Sights are already set on subsequent season, with Sandown specialist Greaneteen possible to strive to win back-to-back editions of the Tingle Creek Chase again at the monitor in December, whereas Nicholls believes there may be extra to come from Saint Calvados. Finals day opened with Brian Hughes being topped champion soar jockey for the second time however the afternoon belonged to colleague Harry Cobden.

Nicholls’ steady jockey partnered 4 of his boss’s winners, leaving him one shy of his century for the season.

It was distinction to 12 months earlier, when Cobden had to watch on as Nicholls had three wins whereas he sat at residence with a damaged cheek and a fractured hand.

The function bet365 Gold Cup eluded Nicholls and Cobden, their contender Enrilo pulled up behind Shark Hanlon-trained Hewick, the sixth Irish-trained winner of a prestigious contest first run in 1957.