Paul Nicholls Looks to Snap Dry Spell

Word has emerged in the Racing Post that Paul Nicholls yard may be suffering from a slight epidemic as several horses in the yard are reported to be coughing. Only a short period of time remains before the festival kicks off in a few weeks and Nicholls has not been his usual winning self in the festival build-up with nary a winner from his sixteen entries on Saturday alone.

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A media event at his Ditcheat stable was cancelled for Wednesday.

Nicholls reiterated that his priority was the owners of his charges and that the yard needed to buckle down and focus on getting them all back to form before festival time kicks off. Nicholls stated that “it is my duty to leave no stone unturned nowas we prepare for the last three weeks before the festival and, in these circumstances, we do not feel it is appropriate to invite the media on Wednesday.”

Zarkandar, one of the leading fancies for Cheltenham this year, was Nicholls only winner in the entirety of February so far. Only a single weekend remains for Nicholls to attempt to snap this relatively bleak losing skid. Zarkandar had triumphed in the Betfair Hurdle.

Nicholls is usually listed by bookmakers at a very competitive price to emerge as top trainer at Cheltenham each year but this year you're looking at Willy Mullins coming in as the 5/4 favourite with the aforementioned Paul Nicholls priced out at around 9/4 – a joint-favourite with Nicky Henderson. Expect a few swings in the odds on that one over the remaining three weeks before we get Cheltenham kicked off.

A number of top trainers are going through similar spells at the moment but all it's going to take is a few moments of magic in three weeks time to make everybody forget. Should many of the top trainers yards not find form, it may be one of the trickiest festivals for the handicappers in ages.

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