Nicholls denies stable out of form Paul Nicholls has hit back at claims his Ditcheat team are out of form. The champion trainer has had one or two high-profile disappointments this month, notably Kauto Star in the William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton. However he insists he is pleased with his string overall and a look at the way they are performing in general has confirmed his belief that all is well. Writing in his exclusive column at www.betfair.com/paulnicholls he wrote: "On Monday morning, I asked Timeform to go through all of my horses to have run in January and see if they performed above or below their Timeform master rating (horses that either failed to finish or were making their hurdling/chase debuts and had no comparable form were ignored - and , for the record, they included impressive winners such Minella Stars and The Minack, so I am not hiding behind statistics here). "Fourteen improved on their Timeform master ratings, and 17 did not. Indeed, nine of the 17 ran at least a stone below form, with the likes of King's Legacy (50lb) Free World (33lb), Kauto Star (31lb) and My Will (30lb) all running races some way detached from their peak. "As far as I am aware, sick horses do not tend to improve and among those not to have performed anywhere near their mark all have individual, not collective, reasons why they ran poorly." Nicholls, who has a strong team in action this weekend including Master Minded in the Victor Chandler Chase, goes on to discuss his juvenile team, his thoughts on those who say Kauto Star should be retired and two firsts for him this week in his Betfair column.
