He was also aboard Saint Calvados, Knappers Hill and Samarrive with Lorcan Williams getting in on the act aboard McFabulous.
Nicholls reflects on remarkable day
The near 331/1 five-timer was completed by Samarrive in the concluding bet365 Handicap Hurdle, a victory that left Cobden on 99 winners for the season.
Nicholls said: “I steered Cobby a bit towards Scaramanga and not McFabulous (in the bet365 Select Hurdle earlier on the card) but that is how it goes. I thought with the six pounds and the other horse being fresh on the ground he might have been better but I got that one wrong and you can’t be right every time.
“I feel for Cobby coming so close to getting 100 but he has had an amazing day. We’ve got a great team This is Kate Nutt (travelling head girl) and Harry’s (Derham) last day and the last one they have saddled is a winner and we have a new thing next season with a new team and it always goes forward and it never stops.
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“We’ve had an amazing week and five winners today. The horses are all coming right and why they weren’t right a few weeks ago, I will never know. Any time you go racing you are happy with one winner but to get five is just amazing. I did six one day at Wincanton but five is brilliant especially on a day like today, which is the last day of the season.”
On the winner he added: “He will go chasing next season but he wants is to go right-handed on good ground. He will improve as he is only a young horse. Funnily enough I thought he was one of our best chances. I texted Johnny (de la Hey) who owns him and I said he is ready for his life. Hopefully he has had a few quid on.”
Harry Derham, who was serving his final day as assistant to Nicholls before embarking on his own training career, said: “It couldn’t have gone much better. This week has been amazing. Today has been a little bit of a daze and I’ve just tried to soak it all in and it has been amazing. It (working for Paul Nicholls) has been my life. I’ve known nothing else. He has been the boss forever, I don’t really know what to say. I’ve tried to soak today in and enjoy it.
“It will take a long time to sink in but I couldn’t have dreamt it being better. We will have a good celebration today and tonight. I’m going to be really busy through May with the sales and I’ve lots of work to do on the site and I’ve lots of people to see. I’ve got some holiday with my girlfriend otherwise I will be in trouble then we will get to October and the hard work will begin.”
Samarrive is the fifth and final Nicholls winner at Sandown
Sizzling Saint Calvados makes all
Saint Calvados produced an exhibition round of jumping to give Nicholls a third successive win in the bet365 Oaksey Chase.
Cobden set out to make all aboard the even-money favourite and was handed an early ten lengths lead when Mister Fisher went right as the tapes went up.
The winner was soon in a wonderful rhythm, one mistake at the Railway Fences on the second circuit apart, and he was in complete control from the second last.
At the line he was 16 lengths clear of his nearest rival.
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“That was a nice win. He deserved to win a race like that. Contrary to what it looks like – that he doesn’t stay – I actually do think he stays,” said Nicholls. “We haven’t had him really right and we are learning about him all the time. I actually think we can get him fitter next year if we don’t have the problems we have had.
“I’m convinced he wants three (miles). He galloped all the way to the line there today. Harry got off him the last day at Aintree and said ‘next time I’m going to make the running’. He got too far behind and all his did was gallop, that’s why we bowled along in front today.
“He likes these small fields and better ground. He doesn’t want soft ground – that’s no good for him. When he ran at Ascot, that was a big waste of time. That was perfect today. He will definitely go back to the King George again as he ran so well in it this year, but hopefully, we can know him a bit more and get him a bit better and ride him differently. The Charlie Hall, something like that, if it was fast ground, would suit him very well.”
There are no dangers to Saint Calvados
Of Mister Fisher, Nicky Henderson said: “It was very uncharacteristic – he would not jib at anything. We haven’t seen Saint Calvados making the running for a long time and the one day he’s making the running, we go and give him 15 lengths at the gate. It was very out of character.
“Peterborough Chases are his sort of level. He is a Grade Two horse. There are lots of races for him and the Peterborough and those sort of things are really up his street. He has had a busy end to the season and Nico (de Boinville) said he was a bit tired.”
Fabulous win for Williams
McFabulous (4/1) made all to win the Grade Two bet365 Select Hurdle, coming home a length clear of Indefatigable.
The trainer said: "He would have gone chasing this season if he hadn’t had an accident at the yard at home earlier in the season. He just slipped up in the yard and fractured a vertebrae in his wither. It was tiny but it kept us back and by the time we got him back it was too late to go chasing. It was good for Lorcan who is part of the team. I said sorry to Harry as I thought the other horse (Scaramanga, who came home last of the four runners) at the weights might be the one to ride. At two out. I thought he might be but he got outstayed by him.
“I was always going to do Aintree then come here then put him away to go chasing. A race like today is made for him really. It is right handed and on good ground. He had a penalty but it was a good performance. He will be an exciting chaser. He will be turned out now and probably turn up at Chepstow over two and a half or three miles.
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“He will get three miles around somewhere like Kempton. He would be a great one for the Kauto Star at Kempton next season and that would be our aim to work back from that as long as wasn’t too soft. It is a long way off but it is good to be thinking about things like that.”
Williams added: “We’ve always known he has been a good horse but it has been stop start and it is really nice to see him get his head in front and that will do his confidence the world of good. He travelled really strongly the whole way. I knew he had plenty left in the tank and I wanted to get him rolling early and they pushed him all the way up the hill. He really put his head down and galloped all the way to the line.
“He is a very talented horse and he has had a stop start season but he has put it all together today."
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Though disappointing in the EBF Final here in March, he had easily landed a novice hurdle last week and Nicholls said: “He is a really nice horse and we knew we had to qualify at Newton Abbot and we kept him fresh for that. That race brought him on a bit and he has done that nicely off top weight. He was sixth in the Betfair Hurdle off a mark of 135 and it was inexperience that got him a bit behind. On that form I knew he was going to be hard to beat today.
“He just loves good ground. The time I ran him in the EBF was probably an error, really. The owners were keen to go because they didn’t really want to go to Cheltenham that week with him.”
He added: “A race like the Gerry Fielden would be a good starting point. Good to soft would be the worst ground he’d want. He’ll mature a bit through the summer be an improving hurdler with a bit of luck.
“He has to improve, but he just might. He’s gone round there and carried top weight and you wouldn’t know he has had a race. He has huge ability, but has very much been a baby this year. He has learned a lot today and proved what a good horse he is. I think there’s lots to come.”
Knappers Hill goes clear at Sandown
Emotional win for Rowe
Trainer Richard Rowe was handed an emotional success that meant “everything” to him in the bet365 Josh Gifford Novices’ Handicap Chase by Up The Straight (9/2).
West Sussex-based Rowe was stable jockey to Gifford, who died aged 70 in 2012, in the 1980s and early 1990s. The pair teamed up for a famous success on this day in 1982 when Shady Deal landed the Whitbread Gold Cup. Eight-year-old Up The Straight (9-2) rallied under James Davies to lead jumping the last and stayed on gamely up the Sandown hill to take the honours by a neck from Jacamar.
The trainer said: “He ran a bit like one of Josh’s because one thing Josh’s horses did was stay up this hill well. I won the Whitbread on one of Josh’s called Shady Deal and jumping the Pond Fence we had no chance but he galloping like this lad did. This horse has been screaming out for three miles for a while but I was just hoping we would get away with over two and a half on his final run of the year. To be honest all the way around he was under pressure and he was just outpaced.
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“James gave him a superb ride and kept his jumping together. I’ve pitched him in the deep end before. We made the decision the first season that we would run in good races to get place money and experience and if he wins one of those big ones we are laughing and if he gets beat we still get good prize money and is gaining good experience and that helped today.
“I would have liked to have won this race last year but we slightly got put away by the form book with the heavy going. I think he is a good ground horse. He won his first race for us on described heavy at Lingfield and mentally I started thinking he wants heavy and as you have seen in the form book he has not finished and it has bottomed him out. On this ground he probably wants three miles.
“This means everything. I suppose everything I’ve achieved in racing is down to Josh. Not only was he a good boss, ge was a really good guy and really good friend as all the family are. He would have said he must be a good horse for you to train him if he was here!”
