Nicholls eyeing Grand National with Bravemansgame
Last Updated 8 Jan 2025 | By Enda McElhinney
Image from Alamy – 2X0CPAC Ahoy Senor ridden by Derek Fox and Bravemansgame ridden by Harry Cobden are first over the fence in the wins the 2.55pmThe William Hill Bowl Steeple Chase (Class 1) during the Randox Grand National 2024 Opening Day at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool, United Kingdom, 11th April 2024 (Photo by Mark Cosgrove/News Images)
Former champion trainer Paul Nicholls is keen to find out if the Grand National at Aintree will be the ‘ideal race’ for Bravemansgame this spring.
The Ditcheat handler plans to drop the three-time Grade 1 winner into handicaps after he finished only eighth in the King George VI Chase at Kempton.
Bravemansgame won the Boxing Day showpiece in December 2022 but the now 10-year-old hasn’t tasted success since.
Days at the top are over
Bravemansgame followed his Kempton win by finishing second to Galopin Des Champs in the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup and he was then third in the Punchestown version when Fastorslow defeated the Willie Mullins-trained Cotswolds champion.
A trio of silver medals at Wetherby, Haydock and Kempton started last season before a laboured fifth in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham and sixth in the Aintree Bowl.
Denied by The Real Whacker in this season’s Charlie Hall at Wetherby and then only third as Royale Pagaille won the Betfair Chase, a 28-length finish behind Banbridge back at Kempton leaves Nicholls back at the drawing board.
“We probably paid the price for chasing the French horse [ll Est Francais] although we’ve accepted Bravemansgame’s days at the top table in Grade 1s are probably over,” said the trainer.
“He’s been amazing and we’ll look down the handicap route. He’ll get an entry for the National and that could be an ideal race. He’s been great but we’ve found his level a little bit more.”
Planning for a mid-season reset
Defeat for Bravemansgame was among a number of disappointments over the Christmas period for Nicholls, who will give his big guns a mid-season break ahead of the major spring festivals at Cheltenham and Aintree.
He said: “Some haven’t been running that well but I don’t put it down to anything. I walked around the whole yard on Sunday night, I didn’t hear one horse cough and I didn’t see a dirty nose. They were all out mad fresh in the morning.
“In December you hope for a few nice winners. We always stop in January and give them a bit of a break and a flu jab. I was taught you can train them hard until Christmas but then you have to give them a break.”
Battle on for trainers’ crown
Nicholls, the 14-times champion trainer in Britain, currently sits second behind his former protégé Dan Skelton in the Jumps Trainers Championship standings, with around £500,000 in prize money between them.
The pair were both eclipsed last season by Willie Mullins, whose Grand National win with I Am Maximum lit the touch paper for an historic title win.
Skelton is eyeing his maiden championship, but Nicholls will know that getting a horse like Bravemansgame into shape for the Grand National could be pivotal in the run-in.
Neptune Collonges and Daryl Jacob won the great race in 2012, giving Nicholls his first victory, 20 years after having his first runner in the race.
