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Paul Nicholls column: inside track on my Aintree runners on Sunday

Last Updated: Fri 23 Oct 2026

14-time champion trainer and Betfair Ambassador Paul Nicholls talks us through his runners at Aintree on Sunday, discusses the withdrawal of Sans Bruit at Cheltenham on Friday, plus reflects on the performances from his yard over the past week.

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Quebecois goes for the Paddy Power Gold Cup next month

Quebecois ran well and should have won, we will leave it at that! He will now go to the Paddy Power Gold Cup. The handicapper gifted us 1lb, so I was well happy with that. It is onwards and upwards with him.

I was really happy with Havanotherguinness and how he ran in the bumper at Newton Abbott last Saturday. It was his first time out on the track and the winner had the experience of a run over him. He just ran a tad green turning in the straight when he half looked to hit the front.

That is what bumpers are all about, gaining experience. He will improve enormously for that, and I am not going to overdo it with him this year. We will look for a nice bumper for him before Christmas. I was very pleased with him on his first experience away and he will improve plenty for that.

The plan is difficult with Rubaud this season. He has lost his two ‘Champion Hurdles’ as it were at Kempton and Wincanton. He has won both those races in the last three years, but both were moved of course, Kempton went to Carlisle which is the complete opposite, and he ran well in the circumstances, giving weight to the first three. I was pleased with him.

For the last two seasons the Wincanton and Kempton races have suited him on fast ground, those are his kind of tracks where he can go at a good gallop. You could not have ridden him like that at Carlisle on Thursday.

It looks like he wants two and a half miles now which is not going to be easy to place. He may go back over fences, and he might even go to the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter.

I was hoping to run Sans Bruit in the Handicap Chase at Cheltenham on Friday (15:35) and it would have been a fantastic race to run him in, but he is a good ground horse. Normally this meeting is run on fairly quick or good ground, but they have had 25mm of rain overnight and this morning and the ground will ease.

Sans Bruit needs good ground, and I don’t want to waste a bullet in a competitive race. He has options over next couple of weeks and there is Wetherby on Friday, the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter on decent ground might suit, although if it moved to Aintree that would also suit him.

In a normal year the ground would be perfect for him, but all this rain will not suit. He is a well handicapped horse, and I don’t want to waste a shot.

Aintree runners on Sunday

1.15 Aintree: Order On Time

He's a nice young horse. He won his only bumper last season and ran well in a point-to-point on very soft ground. I'm very pleased with his preparation and I'm looking forward to running him, but like all of ours, he will improve for the run.

We have a lot of promising young novice hurdlers, but we don't know an awful lot about any of them other than that they've won their bumpers and run well in point-to-points, so hopefully they'll be progressive. Until they run, you don't really know, but he's jumped really nicely, he looks fairly straight, so I'm hopeful of a very good run. I would say he's my best chance on the day.

2:25 Aintree: Knappers Hill

He's only 10-years-old but now qualifies for veterans’ races, so hopefully he can thrive this season. His first run last season was very good, but then he was a little disappointing.

He's dropped down the weights, and he looks as good as I've seen him. He won a bumper at Aintree a few years ago with Megan onboard, so I'm hopeful he'll do well in these sorts of veteran races this season- especially starting at Aintree. We had Outlaw Peter in these types of veteran races last season, and Knappers Hill will follow a similar path.

3.00 Aintree: Hitman

Hitman had finished runner-up twice in the Old Roan Chase before finally getting his win last season, but this looks a hot race. Good ground really suits him. When he won last year, it was good, good to soft, so I wouldn't want to see too much rain. It is what it is, but I wouldn't want the ground getting too soft for him, as he's definitely a much better horse on better ground.

He couldn't be in better shape. He's fit, he's well, he's fresh, he loves this race, but it's a tough race. He's a very hard horse to place. He always runs well, he's rated in the 150s (152), so it's not easy. But he does go very well fresh, he likes this track and has always run well in this race. But looking at the other runners, it's very competitive. It's a good race.

3.35 Aintree: A King Of Magic

He bolted up by 15 lengths in his last race at Perth last season, and the handicapper has put him up 12 lbs for that. He is a progressive horse, but he's a very stuffy horse, so he's going to improve for the run.

Last season, he needed his first two runs. I remember saying to Paddy Brennan before his first bumper at Ffos Las that he's going to need the run, and in all honesty, he needed two runs. He's done a lot of work, but he'll definitely improve for the run.

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