Paul Nicholls has built a powerhouse racing operation in Somerset, and has become one of the leading National Hunt trainers of his generation.

A delve into the National Hunt history books will produce some of the classy Nicholls' horses, from See More Business to Master Minded, not to mention the superlative Kauto Star and his stablemate Denman. His longtime stable jockey was the all-time great Ruby Walsh.

Starting as a jockey himself, Nicholls moved to training and so far has picked up a Grand National, 13 King Georges and the Cheltenham Gold Cup four times.

The early years

He graduated to riding in pony races in the New Forest and got the racing bug watching National Hunt on the TV with his granddad. The Nicholls family moved to Olveston near Bristol and Paul went to ride out for legendary local point to point trainer Dick Baimbridge at the age of 13.

Nicholls left school at 16 to work full-time for Baimbridge where he got stuck into riding in point-to-points. It was in a point-to-point race that Nicholls suffered a broken arm, the first of a series of injuries which hampered his riding career.

Early trainer success

Nicholls quipped to Barber that he would be Champion Trainer but told racingpost.com that "I just wanted to have some good horses and be successful. I was always positive, ambitious and driven."

That drive saw Nicholls claim a first Grade 1 win just two years later with See More Indians in the Feltham novices' Chase at Kempton. The win in the colours of Paul Barber was recompense for his landlord letting Nicholls defer the first six months of his rent to help him on his way.

The 90's were a learning period for Nicholls, picking up some notable wins but most importantly building a relationship with renowned owners.

A link up with the successful businessman Sir Robert Ogden bore fruit with the high-class chaser See More Business, who won the aptly titled Rising Stars Novices' Chase at Chepstow under AP McCoy in November 1996.

By 1999, See More Business was at the tip of the Nicholls spear for an assault on the Cheltenham Festival in which the Ditcheat team won a remarkable hat-trick.

Nicholls took the Arkle with Flagship Uberalles, the Champion Chase with Call Equiname and then the biggest one of the lot, the Gold Cup with the special See More Business.

Solid gold success

As the Nicholls team hit the new millennium, the success began to ramp up with the backing of such top owners as the Stewart family.

Le Roi Miguel took the Martell Maghull Novices' Chase at Aintree in April 2003 in the red and black Stewart silks as the Nicholls yard began to assert themselves on the valuable races.

Then in 2004, Azertytyuiop turned over hot favourite Moscow Flyer to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival for yet another notable owner in John Hales.

The team followed up with wins in the Grand Annual with St Pirran, Earthmover in the Foxhunter Chase and Sporazene in the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle as Nicholls began to take multiple races at the meeting.

Kauto Star and Denman

But the wonder-chaser's superlative run from late 2006 to March 2007 cemented Nicholls as a trainer par excellence.

In under five months Kauto Star and Ruby Walsh had won the Old Roan Chase, the Betfair Chase, the Tingle Creek, the King George VI Chase, the Aon Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

This set up a clash of the titans with stablemate and powerhouse Denman in the 2008 Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The race went ahead with a media frenzy on who would prevail out of the 10/11 favourite Kauto Star and the 9/4 challenger Denman. Eventually, the bullish Denman was rewarded for an aggressive ride with a seven length victory over the classy Kauto Star but the Nicholls stable had emerged as winners with the first three of the finishers as Neptune Collonges ran third behind the two main players.

Champion Trainer Nicholls

Ever since he started training, Nicholls had been in a battle to try and usurp top jumps trainer Martin Pipe. A feat he achieved just as the wily old trainer Pipe was retiring at the end of the 2005/6 season.

Paul Nicholls' ongoing success

Nicholls is in no mood to give up his domination of the jumps racing game after landing his 13th Champion Trainer title in the 2021/22 season.

Another French import, Monmiral won nicely at Aintree in 2021 for the partnership including John Hales and Sir Alex Ferguson, showing Nicholls still has access to leading owners as well as the top talent from across the channel.

Private life

Nicholls has been married three times. He tied the knot with Georgie Brown in Barbados in May 2011.

Away from racing, Nicholls is an avid Manchester United supporter and enjoys sea fishing on his rare days off.