Victoria Pendleton may graduate to “proper” jump racing in a fortnight’s time under plans being laid for her by the champion trainer, Paul Nicholls. The former Olympic cyclist has been getting her jockey’s education this winter in the point-to-point sphere, a more relaxed, grassroots version of steeplechasing, but came within a head of a first victory on Sunday and is now thought to be ready for the next step up.
Nicholls, who was at Milborne St Andrew on Sunday to see Pendleton being beaten only narrowly on Pacha Du Polder, said on Thursday he was looking at Haydock’s Saturday card in a fortnight’s time as a possible target for the pair. The hunter chase on that card could provide Pendleton with her first jumps race at a formally regulated track. There are two alternative races at Ludlow in the following fortnight, either of which could also serve as a warm-up for horse and jockey on their way to the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in mid-March.
“The improvement has been phenomenal, to be fair to her,” Nicholls said here. “I was astounded.” He recalled feeling in the autumn, after watching Pendleton school some horses, that she had “no chance” of competing in the Foxhunter, which has been her ambition since she began learning to ride a year ago.
“You couldn’t say she did anything but give him a great ride the other day. Looked dead safe, competent, did everything right, didn’t get in anyone’s way. So I’ve got no doubt she’s more than capable of riding him round Cheltenham. No one’s pretending he’ll win the Foxhunter but he’ll give her a good ride and if she rides him like she did Sunday, there’s no reason why she couldn’t [take her chance].”
Nicholls was in cheerful mood at his local track, saddling a welcome couple of winners, including Lifeboat Mona, who had run inexplicably badly on her previous outing last month, as indeed have a number of her stablemates. “Of course it’s frustrating,” the trainer said of his recent below-par spell.
“It’d be a darned sight easier if you had horses that were testing badly or coughing or were ill, but we’ve had none of it. A lot of ours do struggle a little bit on bad ground in January, always have done. I think from now on through the spring, we’ll have a right old good time.
“Le Mercurey on Saturday, he ran no race at all. He’s come back, he’s cantered every day since then, he’s fresh, he’s well. You never really know. It’s odd, it really is. There’s been a lot of it going around everywhere, a lot of people have been pulling their hair a little bit.”
He spoke with enthusiasm of next week’s expected return to action of Dodging Bullets and also of Modus, being aimed at the Betfair Hurdle. He also offered a possible reason for the poor efforts put up by Silviniaco Conti in the Betfair Chase and the King George, reporting that the horse had split open a sarcoid, a kind of skin tumour, while jumping in the Haydock race.
“When he stretched over a jump, it’s like pulling the wound open,” Nicholls said, though he readily conceded there were also other factors behind the horse’s defeats. “It could well be a little reason why he didn’t run his race. Now is the first time I’ve got him not hurting, he’s in good shape and he’s fine. So actually I might have a good time with him in the spring. It’s healed up.”
Asked how many horses he would be running at the Festival, Nicholls replied: “Not as many as normal, that’s for sure. We’ve got some nice juveniles for the Triumph and the Fred Winter but most of the other [novice hurdlers] aren’t good enough or strong enough or done enough yet this year.
“There’s no point running horses just for the sake of turning up. If they’ve got no chance, I’m not going to run them. You’ve got to be realistic.
“We have still got some really nice horses to run, some nice horses in the handicaps. Dodging Bullets won’t be out of it in the Champion Chase, believe me. He’s definitely as good as he was, I’ve been seeing that at home. But whether he can deal with Un De Sceaux is a different story, isn’t it?
“The Grade One races, obviously, we’re struggling a little bit. Vibrato Valtat could run into a place in the Ryanair and there’s Dodge, but I might not even have a runner in the Gold Cup.
“Modus is a nice horse as well. He’s going to go to Newbury and then he’ll probably end up in the Supreme. He’s a good horse, he’s one that could definitely have a chance in something. He definitely wouldn’t finish last if he ran in the Supreme, that’s for sure. But it’s a long way off to be making plans.”
Nicholls is not the only trainer currently hoping for a turn of luck. David Pipe’s association with the big-spending owner Roger Brookhouse appears at an end, judging by the fact that Brookhouse has removed his remaining handful of horses from Pipe’s yard to that of Neil Mulholland. Baltimore Rock, who won an Imperial Cup for Pipe, will run for his new trainer at Chepstow on Friday.
Asked if he knew of a reason for the change, Pipe, who saddled Baltimore Rock to win in December, said: “Change of scenery. He’s a good horse and I wish them well with him.”
