Olive Nicholls, the 20-year-old amateur jockey, has announced her retirement from race riding to take on a full-time assistant role for her father, 14-time champion trainer Paul Nicholls. The decision came after a successful double at Newton Abbot on Wednesday, where she rode Viroflay and Golden Son to victory.
In a brief career, Olive rode 25 winners under rules, with 18 of those trained by her father and four by her mother, Georgina Nicholls. She also enjoyed success in point-to-points, riding 28 winners between the flags. Her biggest victory came on Viroflay in a handicap chase at Kempton in December.
Paul Nicholls expressed his pride on social media, saying, 'Mighty proud of @NichollsOlive who after riding a double on Viroflay and Golden Son @NewtonAbbotRace retired from race riding, with a total of 25 NH wins and numerous point to points. What a way to go out.'
Olive told Mirror Racing, 'I’ve been thinking about it this season. I have always loved the training side of the sport and I have basically been riding for fun. I loosely decided that I would stop at the end of the season and I couldn’t have finished in a better way than last night.'
Having previously run her own point-to-point and pre-training yard, and served as pupil assistant at her father's Ditcheat stables, Olive is now focused on her new role. 'I have now moved up to assistant to Dad, which was always the route I wanted to go down. Ultimately I would like to train in the long run and that is the direction I am heading,' she added.
