Paul Nicholls facing issues with key gallop after torrential rain

Speaking on Monday's Betfair Ditcheat Diary, he said: “It was biblical rain yesterday, in 33 years here I’ve never seen anything like it. Our hill gallop was absolutely fine so we can use that, but our loops and flat gallop are literally under water. You’ve never seen water like it.

"We haven’t been able to assess the full damage yet because we can’t get on there, but I’ve never had water on the gallops, let alone what we saw yesterday.

“I was out last night with Rob my gallops man and several others and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing. The damage water does is absolutely incredible.

"As I’ve said we’ve still got the hill gallop and everything has been able to do two canters up there and we’ve been able to school as usual, we just haven’t been able to use the flat gallop and loop.

"We haven't been able to assess the damage yet but I’d say it’s not good. There’s no point hiding away and saying it’ll all be OK, and there’s a huge amount of damage which we’ll have to put right during the week.

“We can still use the hill gallop, we can still school but it’s not ideal and there’s a lot more rain forecast. It’s not a helpful situation."

Nicholls had a mixed day at Cheltenham on Saturday. One of the bright spots was Monmiral's run when chasing home Gowel Road in the Betfair Cleeve Hurdle.

“He ran very well giving four pounds on Saturday so level weights would give him a chance I suppose," the trainer said.

“He’s in the Stayers’ Hurdle, he’ll be in the Pertemps as well and we’ll have to weigh up the options nearer the time and make a decision. But if he was 6/1 in the Pertemps and 25s for the Stayers’ that would tell us all what to do really.

“But we’ll make that decision nearer the time and we were thrilled with him at the weekend, he ran very well. He is a bit in no-man’s-land with his handicap mark in relation to running in Graded races, but it was a very good run again."

Meanwhile, the trainer remains completely baffled by the run of Sauvignon, an expensive recruit from France who ran no sort of race in the JCB Triumph Hurdle Trial, pulling up on his stable debut.

“He was 100% straight afterwards. I couldn’t even offer an explanation. Sometimes these horses come from France and we’ve done it before, you run them at Cheltenham, a track they’ve never run on before being undulating, and they underperform.

“But we thought he’d been going well at home, everyone was happy with him, he looked great, went out and pulled up. None of us really knows why. He wasn’t sick, we had him scoped afterwards, he was clean, he’s eaten up since he came home.

“Honestly, I cant give you an explanation, it’s one if things that you think why the hell did that happen? I just don’t understand it. So it’s back to the drawing board, we’ll run him on a flat track next and go for something like the Adonis.”

More from Sporting Life

• Racecards
• Fast results
• Full results and free video replays
• Horse racing news
• Horse racing tips
• Horse racing features
• Download our free iOS and Android app
• Football and other sports tips
• Podcasts and video content

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.