Paul Nicholls Exclusive: Noel gets the Kauto nod

Latest News / Paul Nicholls / 23 November 2010 / 5

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Noel Fehily will ride Kauto on Boxing Day

Noel Fehily rode a treble at Ascot on Saturday for Paul Nicholls - including Clive Smith's Master Minded - and the champion NH trainer had some good news for the jockey ten minutes ago...

As promised, throughout the season you will be reading exclusive and breaking news from Ditcheat in my Betfair column.

And I am relieved to be able to tell you that we have made a decision on who rides Kauto Star at Kempton on Boxing Day.

I have literally just put the phone down to Clive Smith and Noel Fehily, and Noel takes the ride on Boxing Day.

It was fairly obvious that we were heading in that direction. And Noel's success aboard Master Minded on Saturday pretty much sealed the decision.

I am relieved to be able to put it to bed as it will now stop everyone asking me about it!

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Anonymous | 23 November 2010

Is it just me or aren't we incredibly lucky to have a racing trainer who cares about informing the punters in a column like this so frequently?
Maybe he's getting a tonne of money for it, who cares.
In a sport in which many trainers are much maligned publicly for their 'secrecy', will someone in the media flag up Paul's openness?
No, because most of them are in competition with each other, so we only read about 'how this trainer's always keeping punters in the dark', or how 'such and such trainer constantly shows disdain for all punters by not being up front and honest'.
Well done Paul and good luck to you.
Ian Etherington | 24 November 2010

Excellent choice. Cant wait for the race.
craig | 24 November 2010

glad you picked noel and didnt get hung up on picking mc coy, great rider though he is, some horses arent made for his style. like when you put him on denman when sam thomas was available, what a crazy decision that was, think you got caught up in the walsh/kauto/mcoy/denman hype, and didnt do what was best for the horse. ie. put his fav jockey on top ! apart from that, keep up the good work !
MK | 25 November 2010

Mr Fehily has a great pair of hands, a la Ruby, Carbs, Barry and Mick Fitz (Bless him!)
Let's see what lines up on the day - Ruby was quoted as saying 'Barring accidents, he'll win' - but running plans are fluid for a lot of runners and who knows what will come out of the Hennessy?
It's not fair to highlight McCoy in the tone of 'He can't ride this, he can't do that' - the man is a living legend and everyone should be getting behind his BBC SPOTY campaign.
It's a good call for connections and it looks likely to be the right call too.

Best of luck at Kempton.
craig | 25 November 2010

i didnt say mcoy cant ride any particular type, hes a legend, im saying nichols got influenced by the hype/celebrity of the whole `race of the century` kauto/walsh v denman/mcoy situation. sam thomas has gotten the best out of denman, was available and should have been given the ride, it s what was best for the horse. i dont blame mcoy for what happenned, i blame nichols. but otherwise, hes great !

as noel has shown, a lot of these jocks can do the job when given the chance on top horses. fair play to him.