PAUL NICHOLLS ON SELLING WITH THOROUGHBID AND REVEALS HIS HORSES TO FOLLOW
Jul 24, 2025
14-time Champion Trainer sits down with Cornelius Lysaght to discuss becoming a regular consigner with racing’s online auction house, and looks forward to the start of the Jumps season proper.
It is amongst Paul Nicholls’ favourite mantras: “You can’t stand still”.
That’s his war-cry when speaking of efforts to restock and try to regain the levels of success achieved during the Kauto Star–Denman–Master Minded era when Team Ditcheat was the dominant force in British jumping for years on end.
It’s definitely also the war-cry as the stable seeks a path back to a trainers’ championship lifted in fourteen out of eighteen seasons from 2006, only ever denied by either Nicky Henderson or Willie Mullins.
And nor, he agrees, can you stand still in the world of buying and selling bloodstock, hence a growing use of ThoroughBid, which has seen recent consignments from Ditcheat result in good-priced sales.
In June, seven-time winner Hugos New Horse made a sale-topping £22,000, while £7,000 bought former stablemate Onethreefivenotout; a month earlier, the unexposed six-year-old Dino Magic was sold for £15,500.
“I’ve been impressed with ThoroughBid,” Nicholls told me. “It’s very modern, dead simple and painless, and, of course, you don’t have to go anywhere. Other people are doing the same now, but hopefully ThoroughBid has a foot in the door.
“We had some horses travel all the way up to Doncaster who didn’t make their reserve, so they came all the way back home again, and the transport bills are not cheap - especially with the entry fees on top and the disappointment of not selling.
“We had a go with ThoroughBid, which is no sale, no fee, and that worked out well. Getting all the information together such as the photos and videos was straightforward, and it was good fun monitoring things on the day. The horses made decent money and everyone was happy – I’ll be back.”
We were chatting at the halfway stage of Jump racing’s summer circuit during which the Nicholls squad has demonstrated that although small in size (around eight at any one time), it is also perfectly formed with a red-hot run of form and strike-rate, particularly at Newton Abbot.
Meanwhile, back at HQ in Somerset, horses for the ‘core’ season, from October, are returning from their holidays or arriving for the first time, while a fresh team of assistants – Charlie St Quinton, George Edgedale and the trainer’s amateur rider-daughter Olive – are settling in.
Regular jockeys Harry Cobden and Freddie Gingell will, as ever, be taking the lion’s share of the rides, but there will be opportunities aplenty for conditional rider Jay Tidball, who’s made a notable impression during the summer – “I’ll be trying to make Jay champion conditional” – and for July recruit Freddie Keighley, son of trainer Martin.
But while Nicholls talks excitedly about the months ahead – mentioning as runners to follow Gold Caste and Idaho Fire and, as he goes chasing, accomplished hurdler Blueking D’Oroux – thoughts also turn to the last campaign, with the tone changing.
“We were third in the championship behind Willie [Mullins]and Dan [Skelton] and it was perceived by some to be an ordinary season,” he said, clearly rankled.
“We had one off a hundred winners, nearly two-and-a-half million in prizemoney and won three Grades Ones, a Paddy Power (Gold Cup) and the old Hennessy – if that’s a bad season, then everyone’s in trouble.
“There was definitely some sickness in January and February, which doesn’t happen often, but a few owners lost faith and have left with their horses, but we’ve now got some very nice new owners.
“The Caldwell Potters and the Kalif Du Berlaises obviously haven’t gone anywhere, so of course I’m optimistic about the main season, especially with loads of lovely youngsters and the new faces in the team around me.”
He’s definitely not standing still.