WE are roughly at the half way stage in the jumps season. The busy Christmas centerpieces have taken place and this is a good opportunity to have a look at the standings.

Paul sits top of the trainer’s title, the million pound barrier has been surpassed. We have two horses in the top five earners of the season, Old Guard and Irving. It is not going to be easy to stay on top, but there is a lot of valuable racing between now and the end of the season and we have a great team of horses to make it happen.

New Year’s Day brought about a change in fortune for the yard, and it came in the shape of two horses for the future. Our first winner of the new year was Emerging Talent. Formerly trained by T.J. Nagle junior, he won a bumper in Naas in March 2014. Highly tried over hurdles in the interim, he dropped down into maiden company to easily break his maiden tag over hurdles.

Our other winner of the day was Capeland. He won the Listed Juvenile bumper in Cheltenham. Bought out of France in the summer by Tom Malone Bloodstock, this handsome son of Poliglote made a hugely encouraging debut for us. Travelling well in midfield throughout much of the contest he stayed on strongly in the testing conditions and won nicely at the line. He has a bright future and is one to put in the notebook.

Tom Malone has become a big part of the outfit sourcing horses for Paul. He is busy buying in the pointing circuit as well as spending a lot of time in yards sourcing young horses. He has supplied us with Dodging Bullets, Qualando and Irving to name but a few.

It has been a quiet few weeks racing for me and this gives me an opportunity as Pupil Assistant to work closely with Paul’s assistant trainer Tom Jonason. Tom took on the role as Assistant Trainer at the beginning of the 2013/14 season having joined Manor Farm Stables in July 2010 as Pupil Assistant. He plays a key role in the day-to-day running of the yard, working closely with senior staff to oversee all aspects of the training routine.

Principally, Tom concentrates his time on managing the 43 horses in training at the Highbridge yard. It is in Highbridge where I can work closely with Tom and head lad David Rochester. It’s a fantastic opportunity to work with many of the young horses we have. As well as working in Highbridge, many of our afternoons are spent on the gallops. There are a lot of running repairs to be done in a yard this size to make sure that everything is as it should be.

The weather has taken its toll recently with many meetings getting postponed and abandoned.

Today hosts the rescheduled Coral Welsh National in Chepstow. Also on today is the Lanzorote Hurdle in Kempton, a race which Paul won two years ago with subsequent Grade 1 winner Saphir Du Rheu.

For more information on Paul’s runners check out Paul’s betfair blog at https://betting.betfair.com/horse-racing/paul-nicholls/.