Paul Nicholls Stable Tour 2024/25 - Key quotes from multiple Champion Trainer

Bravemansgame looks great, and we are really, really happy with him. I would imagine we would look at the Charlie Hall again, the race he has started in for the last two years. He had a slightly frustrating season, but he still ran quite well at the beginning of the year. Now we are happy with him, hopefully, we can turn it around and win a couple of big chases with him. He has been an amazing horse.

Captain Teague had a good year last year and won the Persian War first time out and then, frustratingly, got beaten at Cheltenham and then won the Challow Hurdle. He had won a Grade 1, but we could quite get him right after that and he disappointed at the Cheltenham Festival. It was frustrating but feel we could never get him quite right after the Challow. He had a great summer and his work is really great. I can’t wait to see him over fences. I am not sure where he will start and whether it will be over two and a half miles or three, but I can wait to see him as a chaser and I think he is going to be a pretty awesome novice chaser.

Stage Star is very well, and he started brilliantly last year. His performance in the Paddy Power was one of the best performances by one of our horses last year and to hit the last and knock the stuffing out and then run away from some good horses up the hill was amazing. He is going to go for the Old Roan at Aintree, and we are really happy and hoping for a good run. He is quite tricky as he has to go left-handed. We might look at something up to three miles later in the year and he is quite versatile ground-wise. He just doesn’t want it very heavy.

He is quite an interesting horse, and we bought him after running well in one of the valuable bumpers at Punchestown. He finished third and is a lovely horse and a really lovely model. We haven’t done a lot with him, but he is in one to look forward to.

He is a lovely horse of Vision D’Etat who won a bumper at Hereford first time out despite being green and then finished second to a pretty smart horse at Wincanton. He has done plenty of schooling and could be a nice horse.

He is a lovely horse and a full brother to Envoi Allen. He is probably the horse who did best over the summer - he was a big 17.3 horse last year and he has filled out and looks amazing. He has done plenty of schooling and his schooling has been excellent. I think he is a horse that could take a big step up in novice hurdles. He is probably a stayer and could be quite smart.

She is a filly we recently purchased from France, and she is a lovely juvenile. She has quite a high rating already as she has quite a high level of form and she is a lovely filly. There is a listed fillies’ race at Aintree, and she could go there. Hopefully, she can give her owners a bit of fun and we like what we have seen so far.

He is a lovely horse we bought off the Flat from Arqana. He finished third in a maiden there and is a lovely stamp of a juvenile and has a real bit of class and scope about him. He has started jumping and has shown a real good appetite for it. Hopefully, we will see him at the end of November/beginning of December. He could be quite a lovely juvenile.

He won a bumper at Exeter very impressively and then went to Cheltenham and was a little disappointing. He has done plenty of schooling and has been very impressive. He is a very natural jumper and, being a half-brother to the Albert Bartlett winner Brindisi Breeze, I could see him making up into a really top-class staying hurdler this year.

He was very good in his bumper at Ascot then put up another nice performance when giving weight away at Newbury. He will go novice hurdling and I have never seen Harry so complimentary about a horse after he got off him at Newbury. He has done plenty of schooling and is probably our best novice. I think he will take a high rank, and I think his long-term aim will be something along the lines of the Challow Hurdle at Newbury.

Sauvignon is a juvenile we have for this year that we bought in France. He is a lovely horse, and we gave him a bit of a break and he had six weeks out. He is back in, and you probably won’t see him until Christmas time, but he could take high rank amongst the UK juvenile hurdlers.

Teeshan won his bumper very impressively at Exeter and then ran in the Champion Bumper but was too keen in front and did too much. He still didn’t disgrace himself and finished in mid-field. He was going to make his debut at Chepstow in the Persian War but he just had a bit of a stone bruise so he couldn’t go there. We are just letting him recover from that, but he is going to make a top-class novice hurdler.

He is a lovely horse we bought after finishing third in a point-to-point and he finished third first time out for us in his bumper at Kempton. He was a very impressive winner next time at Chepstow and should make a lovely novice. He will be a stayer, and he doesn’t mind soft ground. He has plenty of talent.

He was a winner of his bumper at Sandown first time out and then got a little bit het up at Sandown the next day when we thought he would win, and he ran his race beforehand. He has done plenty of schooling as well and jumps very well. He starts at Plumpton on Monday.

He is a lovely horse we bought from France, and he is still a novice. He finished second at Taunton last year and it was the best thing that could have happened to him as he starts the season a novice. He had a little setback after Taunton so we saved him for this year, and he could take high rank this year. He is a lovely horse.

Afadil ran a Chepstow in the Silver Trophy and finished eighth and he always needs his first run of the season. It was good to blow the cobwebs away. All of our horses have quite needed the run and he will head for the Greatwood at Cheltenham. He is a bony little chap, and he takes his owner Mr Vogt to some really nice days. He is always consistent, and he won at Musselburgh last season.

He is very well, and he ran really well last year considering he had that tricky year after being a Juvenile. He won the Masterson Holdings at Cheltenham and the Grade 2 Ascot Coral Hurdle. He ran well for a five-year-old when fifth in the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot. I would imagine the plan would be training him towards the Long Walk and maybe the Stayer's Hurdle. Where he starts, we are not really sure yet but he looks really well.

He was a lovely horse we had last year, and he won very impressively at Huntingdon and showed a real abundance of talent. I am not sure what the plan is for him, but he is a horse to look out for as he has lots and lots of ability and we will take it steady with him.

Liari was a really good Juvenile for us last season and he ran in the four-year-old hurdle at Chepstow at the weekend and he needed the run more than we thought he would. He will come forward for that and he could also line-up in the Greatwood.

He did brilliantly for Gordon and his team winning a Grade 1 in Ireland and he has shown he has a huge amount of ability. He had a little niggle at the end of the season, and he didn’t manage to run for us, but he managed to sort that. His work is great, and he has schooled a couple of times and jumped brilliantly. Freddie Gingell, who rides him every day, is really really pleased with him. I don’t know where he will start - he could start over two and a half miles in a novice chase somewhere. I am really looking forward to seeing what he could do.

He is a smashing big horse, and he has a very good bumper year. He won at Aintree last October and did everything wrong but still managed to win. He is just a bit headstrong and needs to relax, there is a huge engine in there. He has so much talent but just got a bit het up at the races last year and was absolutely fried at Aintree in April but still put in a great performance to finish third. He is going to go novice chasing and if he can learn to relax then and do things the right way, I have no doubt he is a Graded operator and a very talented horse.

He has a good year winning a couple of novice hurdles last year and he ran at Chepstow this month in a novices’ handicap chase. He jumped great and we thought he was going to win turning in but he just took a blow. Harry said he felt every inch a good chaser and, now he has a run under his belt, on slower ground he will win plenty of races.

Kalif Du Berlais was a lovely juvenile we had last year, and he won two races at Kempton culminating in the Adonis and then went to Aintree and was slightly over the top after a long year and coming over from France. He didn’t do himself any disservice finishing third at Aintree and the plan is to go novice chasing with him. He is a big, strong, strapping horse, and chasing is his game. Paul has had some considerable success taking those four-year-olds novice chasing. He is that sort of horse.

He is a lovely horse that we had for Million In Mind last year. He has some nice owners, and he is going to go novice chasing and could do well for the Pelham family.

He had a good year last year and won a listed race at Kempton and then a Grade 2 Elite Hurdle at Wincanton. He then tried to chase Constitution Hill around Kempton in the Christmas Hurdle, and he didn’t quite get near him, but he won’t be the first to chase home Constitution Hill. He won the Listed Hurdle at Kempton on Sunday for the second year running and it was a nice pipe-opener to his season. The plan is to go novice chasing after this and hope he is good enough to go for something like the Henry VIII on Tingle Creek Day at Sandown.

He is a dark one to keep an eye on over fences as he showed a good level over hurdles and was placed in some good handicaps. He won a nice handicap at Aintree last year and I think he could just be one of those horses who improves for going chasing. Every now and again you get that high 130 horse who improves 10-15lb for going over fences and he could easily be that horse. We can hope and pray.

He is won a nice novices’ hurdle last year and ran a really nice race in the Grade 2 River Don at Doncaster. His season petered out as he had a few niggles, and we couldn’t just get him right after that, but he is a lovely smashing horse. He was a very impressive winner of a point-to-point and you are going to see the best of him over fences. Over two and a half miles and three miles he could be a cracking horse for the team. He has done well and strengthened up over the summer and was still a bit of a weak shell of a horse last year.

He had a great season winning three novice handicap chases at Cheltenham and he went very close at the Festival itself where he came up against his old mate Grey Dawning and he beat us on the day. He would have gone to Newton Abbot last Saturday, but it was watered off and I imagine the plan would be to go straight for the Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham in November.

He had a great year last year when winning the Grade 1 Ascot Chase and he also won the Grade 2 1965 Chase at Ascot in November, and I imagine that is where we will see him back in action. Paul is very happy with him, and he will go back and try and win that race again.

He had a really good beginning to the season winning two novice chases and he ran well in the Cotswold Chase. The wheels fell off afterwards and he ran disappointingly at the Festival and he was disappointing at Ayr. He was bought back at a Dispersal Sale which was good and he had a wind operation in the summer. He could start in the West Yorkshire Hurdle at Wetherby and then go onto the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury. He looks great and we are very happy with him.