Paul Nicholls has his focus firmly set on the Cheltenham Gold Cup after Bravemansgame's victory in the Ladbrokes King George VI on St Stephens' day.
Bravemansgame outlasted eight other horses over the course of the three mile race. Despite the favourite L’Homme Presse jumping out to his left throughout, the Nicholls trained horse did enough to power over the line and take the win.
With the win, Nicholls took home victory in the Boxing Day spectacular for a stunning 13th time. After seeing his horse win in convincing fashion, Nicholls is now eyeing up a Gold Cup charge for his prized horse.
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"It was a hell of a race. They went a good gallop and old Frodon gave them a good lead. He stayed on strong then and showed his strengths. He is just a maturing horse and we have trained him for today,” said Nicholls.
“We will go straight to Cheltenham now and we won’t run him before the Gold Cup. Better ground helps him travel better than he did today, but he dug deep and stayed on. The other horse was a little unfortunate to lose his pilot, but he was beaten by then.
“We were very confident. Some of those bad runs in the spring you couldn’t judge him on as ours weren’t right. When he is right he is a very good horse. We knew it was him at his best today.”
“I loved the way he stayed on as all the way down the back he didn’t have a great passage as L’Homme Presse kept jumping across him and I would have liked to have seen it go a bit more fluent, but he came hard on the bridle and stayed on well,” Nicholls said.
“It is just fantastic. You set out to try and win these races and it is just brilliant, but you have got to have the right horse. He is a good horse but he has not been the easiest to train. We learned a few lessons about him last season but we have got him right now.
“He needs to be fresh. We have nothing to lose running him at Cheltenham, but he won’t run before. Nice ground will suit him well. It was great to see him stay on strong today.
“I was confident as I thought the track would suit him well.”
“L’Homme Presse was obviously going to be a danger and he is obviously going to be a very good horse and he won’t be far away in the Gold Cup where going left-handed will probably suit him better. But we got on top of him when he departed at the last and Bravemansgame galloped on to win so it is good form,” said Nicholls.
“I’m lucky enough to have the horses good enough to do it and the capability of a team that is good enough to get them right on the day.
“Horses like this find you rather than the other way. We have been lucky and we have some other lovely young horses at home. It is fantastic and I feel very lucky.
“You never dream of days like this and once you have a taste of it you never want it to go away. Last season he would never be able to do that (go three times up the hill on the gallops) now he cruises up it. Horses like that just reach that maturity. When he was five when he went to Cheltenham he was nowhere near the best physically but he is getting there.”
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