Nicky Richards

Full Results

Nicky Richards is one of the biggest names on the Northern racing circuit. A long-standing trainer with plenty of years in the game, he’s proven his ability time and time again, continuing to have a strong group of runners operating from his Northumberland base each year.

A jockey first, Richards was the Champions amateur flat jockey in 1973 and was regarded as one of the brighter young prospects at the time. After riding, he became assistant trainer to his father, Gordon Richards, and began to learn the craft of training winners instead of riding them.

Richards would eventually take over from his father, moving up to run the yard when he sadly passed away in 1998. In the same year, he would have his first winner, coming with his very first runner, which was aptly named Better Times Ahead, and there certainly was.

The yard was going well, and thanks to Nicky being a big part of the success with his father, owners trusted him and kept their horses in the yard. While this was a sad moment in his life, it was also a real turning point in his career, becoming the full-time trainer and taking his dad’s racing yard forward. Winners continued, and gradually, Richards would be able to compete at the higher levels of racing, both in the North and further afield.

A year after taking over his father’s yard, Richards would have his first Grand National runner, with Feels Like Gold running in the 1999 edition of the Aintree showpiece. He would finish a very respectable fifth position under Brian Harding and would go back to Aintree for the next two Grand Nationals.

Richard hasn’t won the big race at Aintree but has had plenty of other success at the course.

Success with Monet’s Garden

Monet’s Garden is the biggest named horse to ever go through the Nicky Richards stable. A real stalwart in the late 2000s, if Richards wasn’t on the map by then for some people, then he certainly was after.

In 2007, we saw Monet’s Garden at his very best, picking up some big prizes, and two of the three big races he won would actually come at Aintree. He won the Ascot Chase that year, away from the Liverpool venue, but added the Old Roan Chase and the Melling Chase to his winning run that year, both of which are ran at Aintree.

The Old Roan Chase is one that he would become heavily associated with because Monet’s Garden would go back and win the race again in 2009 and 2010, ending with three victories in that Aintree contest.

A couple of years before all of this, when Monet’s Garden was a younger horse in 2005, Richards had a hugely successful afternoon at the Aintree Festival, winning three of the seven races on one day with Monet’s Garden, Faasel and Turpin Green.

Famous Horses Trained by Nicky Richards

Here are some of the most famous horses trained by Nicky Richards.

• Monet’s Garden
• Feels Like Gold