2006

DAVID Nicholson, one of the great characters of National Hunt racing, died suddenly on Sunday evening at the age of 67.

Suffering with a chest complaint, he collapsed while being driven home from hospital and did not regain consciousness.

Known to everyone as ‘The Duke’, Nicholson was twice champion trainer after riding 583 winners. Apprenticed to his father Frenchie, a fine trainer of jockeys as well as horses, David was off the mark on Fairval at Chepstow in 1955, and enjoyed several big-race triumphs, including on Mill House in the 1967 Whitbread Gold Cup, as well as a cluster of Cheltenham Festival successes, the most notable being Tantalum in the 1971 Champion Chase.

However, it was his victory on Gavin Pritchard-Gordon’s King Pele in the Gloucestershire Hurdle a year later that cemented his long friendship with that underrated Newmarket trainer, who later became chief executive of the Thoroughbred Breeders Association, with Nicholson in retirement a supportive and enthusiastic council member.

Between them, Nicholson and Pritchard-Gordon guided the Princess Royal’s riding career, supplying her with her first winner in public. Whatever his achievements early and late in life, Nicholson will be remembered principally as an outstanding trainer.

Initially operating from Condicote in Stow-on-the-Wold, and then from Jackdaws Castle, he won the Cheltenham Gold Cup with Charter Party in 1988, the Queen Mother Champion Chase with the universally popular Viking Flagship in 1994 and 1995, the King George VI Chase with Barton Bank in 1993, and the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton with Mighty Mogul in 1992.

Some would say that his sympathetic handling of Moorcroft Boy, who returned to win the Scottish National in 1996 after a life-threatening fall at Aintree, matched any of those high-profile triumphs. Apart from Charter Party and Viking Flagship, there were 12 more Cheltenham Festival winners before his retirement in November, 1999.

Opinionated

The Duke was a feisty, opinionated, sometimes arrogant man who would walk a mile out of his way to help someone in need. There was something of the old-fashioned disciplinarian about him, and he was tough when he needed to be, but countless employees and would-be jockeys benefited from his experience and expertise.

Just as Frenchie had moulded the career of the young Pat Eddery, so David guided Peter Scudamore, Richard Dunwoody, Adrian Maguire and Richard Johnson – two champions, one who should have been, and one who will be. Dunwoody, who partnered Charter Party in 1988, said this week: “I owe him an awful lot. He was a very good boss to me, a top man to work for and very loyal.”

Jeff King, just as forthright as The Duke in his own way, said: “I think he was the best schooler of horses of anyone I rode for, and the novices would go out and jump out of their skins first time up over fences. He had his little foibles, but haven’t we all?”

Worked hard

Nicholson worked hard and played hard. He would fix you with a steady gaze when the brandy had been around a few times, and give you the benefit of his considerable wisdom, the index finger of the right hand emphasising the major points, and minor ones as well! There was a correctness about him. He never forgot a name, and he had a way of categorising you. “You should remember that”, he would say, indicating that you were certainly old enough to recall certain names, places, incidents – you were of his vintage after all.

He had a temper. The optimistic paparazzo who found his way into a private function when Johnson and Zara Phillips were still going strong, would have gone into orbit had one or two close friends not intervened. At such times, Dinah, his devoted wife of 44 years, would hover on the fringes of the action, praying that his natural ebullience would remain just the right side of the line. It did, well, most of the time anyway.

Loyal friends

He had good and loyal friends. They helped when Condicote failed as a business venture, and they counselled caution when The Duke was obliged to humour the landlord at Jackdaws Castle, Colin Smith.

Those later years brought him his two titles, interrupting Martin Pipe’s phenomenal run, and also saw the emergence of his assistant Alan King, whom The Duke rated very highly indeed.

David Nicholson was a warm, loyal, loose cannon of man and, when he entered the room, boredom went out the back door. He cared about what you did and how you were getting on. It was a pity he fell one short of 1,500 winners when he retired. However, he’d say that seeing Zara Phillips win her gold medal on Sunday more than made up for it.