Paul Nicholls, Trainer: Level With Martin Pipe on 3,930 Winners

Who is Paul Nicholls, trainer of 3,930 winners?

Paul Nicholls is a British jump racing trainer based at Ditcheat in Somerset, and as of Saturday, November 14, 2026, he is level with Martin Pipe as the winningmost jumps trainer in British history. Each has 3,930 British jumps winners, and the Paul Nicholls trainer story now needs just one more to stand alone.

The winner that did it was not a star. Fasol, a seven-year-old, won the Cutler And Gross Handicap Hurdle at Windsor, a two-mile Class 3 race with 10 runners.

He started at 11-1 and held on by a short head from Watamu after a photo finish, ridden by Freddie Gingell, according to the Racing Post.

Nicholls was not even at Windsor. He was at Cheltenham, where his runner Quebecois had finished fifth in the Paddy Power Gold Cup, and he was having a drink in the course's Arkle Bar when Fasol ran. He told the Racing Post he had nearly forgotten about the race, and Sporting Life reported that he followed it on a phone and cheered loudly.

From eight horses to a record: the Ditcheat story

Nicholls was born in Gloucestershire in 1962 and was a jump jockey first. He rode 133 winners, including two runnings of the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, before a broken leg ended his riding career in 1989.

He took out a training licence in 1991 and moved into rented stables at Manor Farm in Ditcheat with eight horses. The landlord was the dairy farmer and owner Paul Barber, who was his mentor and backer for the rest of his life.

The early steps, from Sporting Life and Great British Racing:

• November 2, 1991: first runner, Southover Lad, at Chepstow.
• December 20, 1991: first winner, Olveston, in a novices' handicap chase at Hereford. His parents part-owned the horse.
• 1993: first Grade 1 winner, See More Indians, in the Feltham Novices' Chase at Kempton.
• 1997: See More Business wins the King George VI Chase.
• 1999: Flagship Uberalles wins the Arkle, his first Cheltenham Festival winner.
• 2005-06: the first of 14 trainers' titles.

In November 2011 he became the fastest jumps trainer to reach 2,000 winners. His best single season was 176 winners in 2020-21, and his most recent title came in 2022-23.

After Fasol, Nicholls gave the credit to the whole Ditcheat team and told Sporting Life that Barber would be proud. He also said he loves the game as much as ever.

The horses: Kauto Star, Denman and the rest

Numbers are one thing. Most fans know Nicholls as the Kauto Star and Denman trainer, the man who had the two best staying chasers in Britain in neighboring stalls at the same time.

• Kauto Star: won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2007 and 2009 and the King George VI Chase five times.
• Denman: beat Kauto Star to win the 2008 Gold Cup, a race where Nicholls trained the first three home.
• Big Buck's: won the Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham four years running, 2009 to 2012.
• Master Minded: won the Queen Mother Champion Chase, the top two-mile chase, in 2008 and 2009.
• See More Business: gave him his first Gold Cup in 1999.
• Neptune Collonges: won the 2012 Grand National.

That list runs across a wide range of distances, from two-mile speed horses to four-mile-plus stayers. It is why his tally is not just a count of small races.

Who is Martin Pipe?

Martin Pipe is the retired trainer whose record Nicholls just matched. He trained from Pond House at Nicholashayne, near Wellington, just over the county line in Devon, from the mid-1970s until he retired in April 2006 and handed over to his son David.

Pipe changed how jumps horses are trained. He used interval training on short, steep gallops, ran regular blood tests in his own lab, weighed his horses and kept detailed records, all of which are now standard practice.

He was champion trainer 15 times, still the record, and his 243 winners in the 1999-2000 season remains the most in a single British jumps season. He won the 1994 Grand National with Miinnehoma.

The two men were fierce rivals for several years when Nicholls was rising and Pipe was on top. Nicholls won his first title in the same season Pipe retired.

What a trainer's winners record counts

The 3,930 figure is a count of winners in British jump racing since records began: hurdle races, steeplechases and the like run in Britain. A small handicap at Windsor counts exactly the same as a Cheltenham Gold Cup.

It is a British jumps total, so it does not tell the whole story of either career. Pipe, for example, also trained more than 250 winners on the Flat, which is why you will see larger totals quoted for him elsewhere.

The record also only counts races run in Britain. Career totals that combine codes and countries are a different measure, which is why Noel Meade's 3,000 winners, a career total across the Flat and jumps, is a separate milestone. The same goes for British trainers: when Philip Hobbs reached 3,000 winners, the Racing Post counted 2,945 of them as British jumps wins.

Winners versus the trainers' championship

Here is the part that surprises newcomers: the British jumps trainers' championship is not decided by the number of winners. The champion is the trainer whose horses earn the most prize money in a season, and money for finishing placed counts too.

That means one big win can be worth more than dozens of small ones. A trainer can have the most winners in a season and still lose the title to a rival whose horses earned more in the richest races.

Nicholls has won that money title 14 times. Since his last one, Willie Mullins won it twice and Dan Skelton won it in 2025-26.

So the two measures reward different things:

• Career winners: volume and staying power over decades.
• Trainers' title: whose horses earned the most prize money in one season, place money included.

What to watch next

Nicholls' next winner in Britain gives him the record outright, whenever it comes. The first chance is Pourquoi Pas Papa in the WKD Novices' Limited Handicap Chase at Cheltenham on Sunday, November 15, at 13:25 UK time (8:25 a.m. Eastern).

That is a 2½-mile race for novice chasers, horses that had not won a steeplechase before this season began. Our guide to what a novice chase is explains the type.

Nicholls told the Racing Post the horse ran well last time and would have a good chance if rain arrived overnight. Nothing is certain: he said the stable had gone close several times before Fasol finally got them level.

A few things to keep in mind as you follow it:

1. The record is a matter of when. He has runners most days in the winter, so if Sunday does not deliver, the next chance is never far off.
2. 4,000 is the next round number. He needs 70 more winners after Fasol to get there.
3. Pipe's other records are safe from him for now. The 15 titles and the 243-winner season still belong to Pipe.

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