"163", "name" => "Paul Nicholls", "category" => "Ante-Post Plans", "path" => "/var/www/vhosts/betting.betfair.com/httpdocs/horse-racing/paul-nicholls/", "url" => "https://betting.betfair.com/horse-racing/paul-nicholls/", "title" => "Paul Nicholls: Coughs Go As Quickly As They Come : Ante-Post Plans : Paul Nicholls", "desc" => "The one highlight of last week was<strong> Zarkandar's</strong> performance in the Betfair Hurdle. Especially as he was one who came back from Newbury with filthy nose and cough.", "keywords" => "", "robots" => "index,follow" ); require_once '/var/www/vhosts/betting.betfair.com/httpdocs/horse-racing/paul-nicholls//MobileDetect.php'; $mob = new MobileDetect; if ($mob->isMobile()) { ?>

Paul Nicholls: Coughs Go As Quickly As They Come

View market

Paul gives you the full update on the health of his horses after a weekend of disappointing performances. But every cloud has a silver lining as it'll take more than a cough to stop Zarkandar winning...

It would be fair to say that Saturday wasn't a great day at the office for me. Plenty of our horses didn't show their true form and even Dan mentioned to me on the drive home that, as far as he could remember, this was the first Saturday we didn't have a winner since he has been working with me.

In fact we have only had one winner in our last 31 runners; not a particularly good stat to read. I don't like giving excuses but I do want to keep punters informed and, as our weekends runners came back from the track, a good few of them had dirty noses and were coughing. Nothing serious but it's got to be monitored and gives us some clues as to why a few of the team didn't run to their true form, which was plain to see. Coughs come and go at yards and there is always the odd horse with one but, in the past few days, we have started noticing more. We are sticklers for keeping our yard as healthy as can be with bi-annual flu jobs as well as regular steam cleaning of the horses boxes and stables - nothing is left to chance. But unfortunately horses can pick these coughs up when visiting the track and bring them back home.

The horses who have come back with dirty noses and coughs will get antibiotics. Depending on the horse it can be three to five days before they are back in full training. It's much like when we get a head cold - the whole thing goes as quickly as it comes. Sometimes you might hear a cough a day or two before they go to the races but they still work well. Until they've had gone through the full stress of a race it really doesn't come to the fore. Ourselves and other yards are no strangers to this. We've headed into Cheltenham before on so called "terrible form" but end up banging in a few winners at the Sandown meeting and having a great Festival.

The one highlight of last week was Zarkandar's performance in the Betfair Hurdle. Especially as he was one who came back from Newbury with filthy nose and cough. Add that to the fact the race was not run at a pace to suit, his performance has me even more excited about his chances come the festival! Zarkandar be back out cantering on Wednesday once he has finsihed his course of antibiotics.

Silivinaico Conti and Kauto Stone both disappointed but neither have shown any signs of illness since. In fact Buffy has run tests and washes on a lot of the horses and 80% haven't shown any negative signs. I think Silvinaico needed the run more than I thought as he didn't find much after the second last and we'll go straight to Aintree with him. I'll expect huge improvement from him there. Whilst Kauto Stone was way too head strong and looks like he ruined his chances by the time he got to the business end of the race. The plan is still the Ryanair for him as we know he is better than Saturday's showing.

In case you're wondering whether Kauto Star, Big Buck's, Join Together or Al Ferof have been affected, they haven't and are all in good form. If anything changes I'll be straight on here to tell you as quickly as I can.

-------------------------------------

Check out all the Cheltenham Ante Post markets live now on Betfair.

Paul Nicholls / 20 Feb 2012

Paul Nicholls: Coughs Go As Quickly As They Come

Ante-Post Plans RSS / / 20 February 2012 / 1

" class="free_bet_btn" rel="external" onclick="javascript: pageTracker._trackPageview('/G4/inline-freebet');" target="_blank">
Ante-Post Plans

The one highlight of last week was Zarkandar’s performance in the Betfair Hurdle. Especially as he was one who came back from Newbury with filthy nose and cough.

Paul gives you the full update on the health of his horses after a weekend of disappointing performances. But every cloud has a silver lining as it'll take more than a cough to stop Zarkandar winning...

It would be fair to say that Saturday wasn't a great day at the office for me. Plenty of our horses didn't show their true form and even Dan mentioned to me on the drive home that, as far as he could remember, this was the first Saturday we didn't have a winner since he has been working with me.

In fact we have only had one winner in our last 31 runners; not a particularly good stat to read. I don't like giving excuses but I do want to keep punters informed and, as our weekends runners came back from the track, a good few of them had dirty noses and were coughing. Nothing serious but it's got to be monitored and gives us some clues as to why a few of the team didn't run to their true form, which was plain to see. Coughs come and go at yards and there is always the odd horse with one but, in the past few days, we have started noticing more. We are sticklers for keeping our yard as healthy as can be with bi-annual flu jobs as well as regular steam cleaning of the horses boxes and stables - nothing is left to chance. But unfortunately horses can pick these coughs up when visiting the track and bring them back home.

The horses who have come back with dirty noses and coughs will get antibiotics. Depending on the horse it can be three to five days before they are back in full training. It's much like when we get a head cold - the whole thing goes as quickly as it comes. Sometimes you might hear a cough a day or two before they go to the races but they still work well. Until they've had gone through the full stress of a race it really doesn't come to the fore. Ourselves and other yards are no strangers to this. We've headed into Cheltenham before on so called "terrible form" but end up banging in a few winners at the Sandown meeting and having a great Festival.

The one highlight of last week was Zarkandar's performance in the Betfair Hurdle. Especially as he was one who came back from Newbury with filthy nose and cough. Add that to the fact the race was not run at a pace to suit, his performance has me even more excited about his chances come the festival! Zarkandar be back out cantering on Wednesday once he has finsihed his course of antibiotics.

Silivinaico Conti and Kauto Stone both disappointed but neither have shown any signs of illness since. In fact Buffy has run tests and washes on a lot of the horses and 80% haven't shown any negative signs. I think Silvinaico needed the run more than I thought as he didn't find much after the second last and we'll go straight to Aintree with him. I'll expect huge improvement from him there. Whilst Kauto Stone was way too head strong and looks like he ruined his chances by the time he got to the business end of the race. The plan is still the Ryanair for him as we know he is better than Saturday's showing.

In case you're wondering whether Kauto Star, Big Buck's, Join Together or Al Ferof have been affected, they haven't and are all in good form. If anything changes I'll be straight on here to tell you as quickly as I can.

-------------------------------------

Check out all the Cheltenham Ante Post markets live now on Betfair.

'.$sign_up['title'].'

'; } } ?>

(1)

  1. Matthew Miller | 21 February 2012

    Great stuff once again from the Champion Trainer!