Following an illustrious career as a jockey that produced over 650 winners, four Grade 1 victories, two Cheltenham Festival successes and two placed efforts in the Grand National among a multitude of other accolades, Nick Scholfield has made a seamless transition into the National Hunt training ranks after a breakthrough season.
Toward the latter stages of his career, where he was receiving less rides, Scholfield began to switch his focus to his small pre-training yard. “It got to a stage where I’d rather be at home doing that than going racing,” stated Scholfield. “That’s the time to retire when you start thinking like that.”
The 36-year old began his career with Paul Nicholls, and was associated with many of the most knowledgeable racing individuals throughout his tenure, providing him a solid foundation for his introduction to the training ranks. “For many years I’ve been into the yards on a weekly basis and knew everyone’s routines, what they did and what they didn’t do. I sort of took what worked for us, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t copy them!”
Training from the beautiful 38-box yard Felstead Court Stables, holding 3.5 acres of idyllic land, Scholfield said “the only place I wanted to be was in Lambourn. They have the best gallops in the country. They’re second to none, and it gives you a chance to be able to start training with the facilities to match the big boys.”
Debut season a ‘dream’ start
20 years on from his first winner under rules as a jockey, Scholfield has already mirrored that successfully carved career into the training mould. He amassed over £400,000 in prize money with 34 winners, including a Listed success with St Irene and taking the valuable Herring Queen Series Final Mares Novices’ Handicap Hurdle.
When asked whether he could’ve imagined such a promising start, “not in my wildest dreams,” he responded. “I was just trying to pick my way through, and just as the season went, one by one the horses kept coming. By the end of the season we had a nice team of horses. Horses like Bollin Thou who won five (in a row), St Irene won a listed race, and Queenie St Clair winning the big handicap – they were three special horses to have in your first season, we’re very lucky to have them.
The three aforementioned horses all represent the talents of Nick Scholfield not only as a trainer, but from the viewpoint of being able to plot his way through the programme book with different types. Bollin Thou, who he knew from his pre-training yard, improved 41lbs in his care. St Irene is now a black type mare, while Queenie St Clair was expertly delivered in a valuable handicap.
The former Cheltenham Festival winning jockey discussed the importance of attributing his race-riding expertise into his training methodology, in particular the race planning, suggesting: “Having ridden in a lot of those races, you get an idea on what sort of types you need for those races and what it’s like to ride in those races.
“Sometimes you’ll see a horse and you think, “Oh, I’d love to ride that in that race. So that’s the race it’s going for, kind of way. But you know, when you’re a jockey, you’re always looking at horses’ form, so you get an idea where people are going and not going, and what they like and then don’t like, so yeah, it certainly is a massive help.
“But at the end of the day, plans are only good if you’ve got the horses that can do it!”
“Summer jumping serves a purpose” suggests Scholfield
Summer jumping has been a topical conversation following Willy Twiston-Davies’ comments earlier this week, and Scholfield was quick to defend the discipline.
The yard had a productive summer including a 26% strike rate in July, along with Morning Mayhem’s head second in the valuable Lincoln Handicap Hurdle at Market Rasen last week.
Asked whether he’d change much regarding the summer jumping model, Scholfield replied: “Not really, I’d almost have a cut-off point in September into the middle of November, just to stop people running winter horses on summer ground.
“Summer jumping serves a purpose. We have a lovely nine-year-old called Limerick Leader who only likes good ground, he’s ran seven times this summer and won three. He would be lost in the winter, so it serves a purpose for him.
“I haven’t run one winter horse yet going into October. You’ve just got to run the right type of horses. Morning Mayhem’s had six runs this summer, no injuries, same with Limerick, Raffles Nobu, Mi Sueno, Edgewell, they’ve all run throughout the summer and not picked up any injuries and picked up results and run regularly, I don’t think summer jumping is a problem.
“I’m just aiming to beat last year’s total” – Scholfield
While Queenie St Clair and Morning Mayhem may take up their entries in the Silver Trophy at Chepstow, Scholfield is keen not to run his winter horses until November as the country continues its unprecedented dry spell.
Looking ahead to the season, Scholfield’s main aim is to better last year’s impressive total of winners and prize money. Following that, “it’s about trying to maximise each horse’s ability. That’s the key — just trying to do the best with each horse and get them to earn as much prize money as they can.
In terms of his string this season, Scholfield gave a nod to several candidates who he’s looking forward to unleashing over the winter. Race To Base was one, who’s rated 121 following his second in the valuable bet365 Novices’ Championship Final at Sandown. Seven length Chepstow winner Tobyshill was also mentioned, alongside bumper winner Oties’s Friend and Lord Churchill.
With a whole host of progressive young types entering a variety of disciplines, Nick Scholfield and his team look set for another strong season ahead.