Mat Nicholls added to Kim Bailey's training license

Nicholls, who has been with the Gold Cup and Grand National-winning handler for 16 years, had been waiting until Bailey had passed the career milestone of 1,5000 winners.

Bailey passed that milestone in early November at Ascot when Chianti Classico won the Sodexo Live! Gold Cup Handicap Chase..

Bailey said: “Mat’s worked for me for 16 years and I always said once I got to 1,500 winners I would put him on my license. We actually hoped it would have happened a year ago but it’s took me longer to get to 1,500 winners.

“He’s got plenty of experience and has worked for Nigel (Twiston-Davies), Tom George and Carl Llewellyn and has been with me for a long time now.

“A younger person on the license helps and it will be up to him to bring in new people (owners) as well, it’s very much his future and my future as well so it’s important we work well together.

“We get on very well. You’ll not see much difference other than another name on the license as we don’t need to change anything. There seems to be a lot of red tape to cut through first (before it becomes official) and we hoped it would be ready by now, but it’s not.”