Paul Nicholls not resting on laurels
Monday 27 April 2015 11:32, UK
Paul Nicholls says the drive to strengthen his squad and win a tenth trainers' championship title is already underway.
With no apparent stable stars, Nicholls says he felt he would struggle to match his exploits of previous seasons, but a succession of big Saturday winners soon enabled him to build up an advantage he would not relinquish.
To emphasise his dominance, he won the final major race of the season, the bet365 Gold Cup, with the relatively unconsidered Just A Par, who now has next year's Grand National as a target.
"It's fair to say I wasn't expecting to be champion this time as I felt we didn't have a strong enough team," the Ditcheat handler told www.paulnichollsracing.com.
"Yet with the winners flowing for month after month I have enjoyed this season as much as any apart from my first championship which was obviously especially sweet.
"I've loved every minute of it which was not the case in the previous two seasons.
"We have had so many highlights for our owners with our horses and jockeys in sparkling form.
"Sam Twiston-Davies, Nick Scholfield, Sean Bowen and Jack Sherwood have all played their part and I was thrilled to see Sean crowned champion conditional on Saturday.
"Now the task is to focus on the challenge of the new season. We have bought 10 horses over the past month and will be shopping for more to build up as strong a squad as possible.
"We will be fairly quiet as usual through the summer though Zarkandar, Sire Collonges and Silsol could all be running at Auteuil in the months ahead."
