Nicholls nailing it nationwide

By Isaac Murphy

Queensland representatives are few and far between in the upper echelon of Victorian racing, but after just two starts under champion trainer Anthony Azzopardi, the Warren and Tracey Nicholls-owned How Not Too has been anointed a future star by her new trainer who has her ripe to take on the country’s best in the coming weeks.

The Nicholls kennel are kicking goals on the home front as well, with Sky’s The Limit and See Them Try lining up in Thursday night’s Christmas Stocking and Middle Distance Finals respectively.

“We’ve never really experienced anything like it in terms of the raps Anthony has on her and the races he’s talking about targeting; the closest we got was with Common Ground, we’re all pretty excited,” Warren Nicholls said.

“Anthony told us he was going to have a crack at the Ballarat Cup first-up, but not to worry too much how she went and to see her win second-up down there at The Meadows gave us a real buzz.

“When I sent her down, I thought she’d just be another dog in the kennel, but he’s that upbeat about her on the phone telling us how well she’s going, it’s what you want to hear.”

Nicholls is firmly planted in Queensland with his growing team of dogs, but knows How Not Too’s in good hands and hopes to see her race in the big time eventually.

“Tracey and I would love to be down there seeing her race in person and we hopefully will at some point, but we’ve got a hundred dogs to take care of up here and I thought who better to ask than Anthony,” he said.

“I actually just messaged him one Thursday night saying would you be interested in taking her on and ten minutes later he said send her down as soon as possible.

“I haven’t been afraid to say how good I think she can be, but to have a judge like Anthony say she was something pretty special was great news, he gave her a post-to-post at the Meadows the other week and said it’s one of the fastest he’s ever seen.”

The feature races come thick and fast in Victoria and Azzopardi is not mucking around after a great first impression.

“He’s told me she’ll probably have one more hitout before the Paws of Thunder in January - which is the immediate target - and then there’s a nice bitches only race down there for about $70,000 that she’ll be set for,” Nicholls said.

“It’s nice to see it all coming together, we sent her down there for those kind of races and it looks like she’ll get her chance.

“Touch wood she can perform as well as she has been and carve out a real name for herself, she’s got plenty of racing in her.”

The kennel will be looking for an early Christmas present this Thursday evening with Sky’s The Limit giving herself a chance in the Christmas Stocking Final, where Nicholls thinks she won’t be too far off the mark.

“She got a few favours with the small field in her heat but I was really happy with the run, she missed the kick in the Futurity a few weeks ago where she would have been a real chance if she ran around that 30.12 mark she clocked last week,” he said.

“She’s a bit of a wide runner which can get her into trouble sometimes, so it was nice to see her go 5.57 early and give herself every possible chance to come away with a win.

“It’s a trait of the litter (Moreira/Hot Pyjamas), we’ve tried everything to get them close to the fence but that’s just the way they race and it plays to your advantage at times.”

The bitch tackles a fifth-grade field and Nicholls says it’ll come down to small margins on the night.

“She just needs to improve about a tenth and she’ll be in it up to her eyeballs in the Final, they’re all pretty even being fifth-grade dogs - I think she’s as good a chance as any,” he said.

“Drawing the four is not the best - we would have preferred a bit wider to go with her style - but it’s not the worst either, if she begins then she might not get flushed too wide at the first turn.

“She’s used up all her fifth-grades now, so we get one more crack this week and then she goes up in class, we’re pretty confident she can be a good money spinner on Thursdays going forward.”

There haven’t been too many more impressive 600-metre debuts than See Them Try in the Middle-Distance Challenge heats last week, and the dog looks like he’s finally found his calling.

“He was an absolute monster last week, he gave the leader about 10 lengths and just smashed the line first time over 600 - he almost looked like he wanted further,” Nicholls said.

“He’s been a little ATM for us at Ipswich on Saturday nights - plenty of placings mixed in with the odd win - so to now have him competing in open grade on a Thursday night we’re over the moon.

“I think it suited him going straight in with the free for all dogs with a bit of pace in the race, with his racing style you can get tangled up and caught behind in the fifth grades - he had plenty of room to move last Thursday.”

All signs point to a repeat performance in the Final, possibly the start of a promising summer campaign.

“First run over 600 you always wonder how they’re going to pull up, but he’s handled it no worries which is half the battle going into this week,” Nicholls said.

“Box one will work for him; Shakey Diesel and Let’s Go Ozzi should cross him fairly easily, but if he can just find a spot in behind them like he did last week he could be the fresh dog on the scene.

“Frieda Las Vegas has a bit of class on him, but outside her I think they’re all fairly even - his run home (12.86) was actually the quickest of all three heats.”