Nicholls has eyes on a nifty fifty

PAUL NICHOLLS has been around long enough to realise a stop-start season does not make or break your career.

- MELISSA JONES

Sick horses after annual flu jabs, freak flooding to a gallop and race-running flops have been three hurdles to get over.

But the 14-time training champion never shirks a challenge and has his heart set on notching a Festival half-century, after reaching 49 last year with Monmiral in the Pertemps Final.

"I love horse racing as much as ever," he says. "It has been a quieter season but we are not far off £2million in prize money.

"We have got a brilliant set-up and nothing has changed. This year I will enjoy Cheltenham and do the best we can."

Nicholls launched his career with just eight horses in 1991 and the same number passed in years when See More Business earned legendary status.

The tough-as-teak 1999 Gold Cup hero laid the foundations for Kauto Star and Denman in an unmatchable era for Ditcheat.

Back in the post-millennium period, around 25 of the stable's horses training in the rolling hills of Somerset would be gearing up for Cheltenham.

"We have got to be realistic," Nicholls admits. "Our stable hasn't quite got the players at the moment. There are always challenges in this game. It's important that we always try to look forward and never back."