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Davidstown Enniscorthy Wexford
Paul Nolan worked with the legendary Jim Bolger before becoming a trainer and he took out his license in 1996. He has had success at all the major festivals in Britain and Ireland and has amassed a total of more than 600 winners so far.
Training in Enniscothy, County Wexford, from there he has produced nine Grade 1 winners and three winners at the Cheltenham Festival.
Dabiroun and Mrs Milner won the Fred Winter and Pertemps but the most high profile of them would be Noble Prince’s 2011 JLT Novices’ Chase success.
When Nolan won the Galway Hurdle for the third time back in 2006, he became only the second ever trainer to achieve the feat. Both Willie Mullins and Tony Martin have managed to do so since, so he’s in good company.
His most recent Cheltenham Festival was the Mrs Milner in the 2021 Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle. Bryan Cooper was on board the mare and she was far too good for them on the day, pulling five lengths clear of her nearest rival at the line.
The trainer’s first ever winner came in a Leopardstown maiden hurdle in March 1998, two years after he took out his license. Nibalda was ridden by Joe Casey and the pair kicked clear after the final flight to win nicely.
Nolan has trained more than 600 winners throughout his career and the bulk of them have come over jumps in Ireland. Limerick has been his most successful course over the years and he has trained 64 winners there.
Also training a handful of winners on the Flat in Ireland, he has 20 winners to his name in that sphere, with four of those coming at the home of Flat racing, the Curragh.
The County Wexford handler has also had 12 winners in Britain, with three of those coming at the Cheltenham Festival, and he has also had a winner at Aintree. The majority of his British victories have come at Cheltenham and there’s no better place!
The Galway Hurdle is a ferociously competitive handicap which is extremely difficult to but Nolan managed to find the key to it in the early 2000s, winning in three times between 2002 and 2006. Say Again landed the 2002 renewal, whilst Cloone River and Cuan Na Grai followed suit in 2004 and 2006 respectively.
The biggest of his nine Grade 1 victories in Ireland was probably Joncol’s success in the 2010 Hennessy Gold Cup. He successfully chased down Willie Mullins’ Cooldine to take up the lead close home and score by a neck. The same horse had also landed another notable prize earlier on in the season, having won the John Durkan Memorial.
Nolan notched his first Cheltenham Festival success with Dabiroun in the 2005 Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle. Nina Carberry rode him patiently in the early stages of the race and made smooth headway as the race developed, with the pair finishing eight lengths clear.
Latest Exhibition was Nolan’s stable star a few years ago and the gelding won a Grade 1 novice hurdle at the Dublin Racing festival in 2020 and went on to finish second to Monkfish in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham.
