Paul Nicholls provides perception on Chepstow providing as he takes the meet ‘regular’

Fourteen time champion trainer Paul Nicholls has revealed that he is taking the season ‘steady’ at first as the weather has restricted Chepstow hand

Paul Nicholls has revealed he only has four riders for the DragonBet Welsh Racing Festival. Chepstow is usually Nicholl’s first big day out in the season, but a dry summer has set his plans back with the trainer adding he’s being “patient” this year.

Betfair ambassador Nicholls said: “We’ve only got four in this year. With the weather, we’ve not been that in much of a rush with them. Last year. The ground was very very firm. We got horses ready, and it didn’t really work out. And of course, all the chasers are gone, so that’s ruled all our chasers out.

“Fasol’s going to run in the handicap on Friday. Stick to the Board in the Persian War Friday, but I think we’ll run in the Maiden Hurdle on Saturday because the Persian – although I think he’d run well – would be chucking him in the deep end for the first time, so we’ll probably run him in the maiden Saturday.

“Treasure Planet runs in the four-year-olds only handicap hurdle. Whether he’s quite got the class to win that race, I don’t know. And I run a nice bumper horse called Too Many Acres on Sunday, so it’s a nice little starting point.

“Quebecois, who could have gone there, will probably go to Newton Abbot the following Saturday. So we’ve made sort of plans, but we’re not going to be quite as busy as we normally are there.

“I don’t even know if Nikky (Henderson) even got any entries. Yeah. So the weather has played a big part in what’s going on.”

Stick To The Board leads the team heading to Wales, with the five-year-old holding an entry for the Grade Two Persian War Novices’ Hurdle on the opening day of the meeting and another in a maiden hurdle on Saturday.

Paul Nicholls was speaking at Betfair’s launch of the new horse racing jump season. Everyone’s got an opinion. Back yours at Betfair.