‘The pressure bit is what we’re doing at home. It’s getting them there’.
For Nicky Henderson, the pressure of having horses at the Cheltenham Festival is not on the day but in the build-up.
His job is to get his team to the four biggest days in the jumps calendar in the best possible shape.
No one knows better than the master of Seven Barrows, who is the most successful UK trainer with 68 winners – the first coming way back in 1985.
He has good chances in four of the main events this year, with past winners Epatante and Buveur D’Air giving him a strong hand in the Unibet Champion Hurdle, Shishkin aiming to join the Seven Barrows trainer’s good record in the Sporting Life Arkle Trophy, Altior trying to regain his Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase crown and Champ and Santini two hopes of giving him a third WellChild Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Nicky Henderson with his major Cheltenham Festival runners (left to right) Champ, Altior, Shishkin, Epatante and Santini (David Davies/PA)
“The pressure bit is what we’re doing at home. It’s getting them there,” he said.
“It’s not so much what happens on the day, the last few weeks are an uncomfortable time. There are so many things that can go wrong.
“You’ve got to get it absolutely right. There are banana skins everywhere, and that is what we’re all nervous about – things that go wrong with your big boys.
“That puts us under pressure.”
The unpredictable British weather has not made life easy, either.
“The weather has been very variable. We’ve had as wet a winter as you can remember and a complete week of a freeze-up,” he said.
“It hasn’t been easy, and we’ve had a few difficult times with the horses themselves. There have been little patches when I haven’t been totally happy, but at the end of the day it’s coming together.
“We’ve had to change our preparations a bit. There was obviously the moving of the Newbury meeting, which changed our plans quite a bit, and we’ve had to improvise quite a lot.
“We’d normally take quite a big squad to Kempton to gallop on the all-weather a fortnight before Cheltenham, but we’ve not been able to do that this year, which has changed our run-up plans.”
Despite the pressures and inevitable mishaps, the Henderson string will be a force to be reckoned with from day one – starting with high hopes in the Arkle and Champion Hurdle.
Nicky Henderson with his Arkle Trophy hope Shishkin (David Davies/PA)
Shishkin bids to join Henderson’s elite band of Arkle Trophy winners which include Remittance Man, Sprinter Sacre and Altior.
“It’s amazing how this race has gone from about three or four weeks ago, when Shishkin was odds on and everybody said it was going to be boring,” he said.
“All of a sudden Willie (Mullins) has come along with the Energumene. That’s arrived on the scene, and I think Allmankind was impressive again at Warwick. Now there’s a real fight, and people are seeing it as one of the big headline clashes of the week. He’s got a real battle on his hands.”
The aforementioned Energumene will be just part of a formidable battalion of Irish raiders for Henderson and the British team to cope with – a factor he is very mindful of, especially after watching the Dublin Racing Festival, where Mullins in particular was unstoppable.
He said: “They just came up with another blockbuster. You suddenly think ‘crikey, I thought I was going to win that’ and all of a sudden Willie has come up with something and what are we going to do now? We’ve got to do our best, it’s been the same for a few years.
Willie Mullins and Paul Townend will be a big threat to Nicky Henderson’s hopes at Cheltenham (Tim Goode/PA)
“That scoreboard that is down at the bottom of the parade ring, when it’s got the English and the Irish flag and the numbers – it’s pretty daunting when the score is 11-5 or something. Then you feel you are fighting a losing battle, but I’m not going into this thinking we’re fighting a losing battle.
“We’ve got a lot of very good chances. We thought Shishkin was a pretty good banker to go into last year, and Altior was always in that situation. Sprinter was always in that situation – you always had something you hoped you could hang your hat on, whatever happened.
“You always say you’ll settle for one, and I mean it more than ever this year, because I think it’s going to be tougher than ever.”
Henderson has won the Champion Hurdle three times in the last four years, with Buveur D’Air (2017 and 2018) and Epatante (2020). The pair represent him again – but both have to come back from defeats.
“Epatante was disappointing at Kempton because she was very good in the Fighting Fifth. She wasn’t herself in the Christmas Hurdle,” he said.
“Obviously, she’s better than that. I think we’re back in the right place now.
“She looks wonderful. If we’ve got her back she’s got as good a chance as any.
“The ground at Haydock found Buveur D’Air out. I thought we were going to get to the winner, but he emptied a bit. He was entitled to get a bit tired after his time off – but it did him good, and he’s in good shape.”
On day two, Altior will attempt to reclaim thr Champion Chase crown he made his own in 2017 and 2018.
“It hasn’t been easy. Having been invincible, it hasn’t gone his way,” said Henderson.
Altior bids to regain his Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase crown (Paul Harding/PA)
“He is 11 now and he’s done very little wrong. One or two things have conspired against him.
Should Altior defy the odds then he would go close to matching the achievement of Sprinter Sacre, who overcame several problems to win a second Champion Chase in 2016 – three years after his first.
“With Sprinter – that was a miracle. I don’t think you could hope for two miracles, but this one would be very special if he could because he’s been a fantastic horse,” said Henderson.
Henderson named Sprinter Sacre’s second Champion Chase triumph as his most memorable day at Cheltenham.
“We’ve been very lucky. We’ve had some great days. You go back to See You Then (with three Champion Hurdle wins in the 1980s). I was wet behind the ears, it was so long ago, but I can remember it,” he said.
“I think you have to say, and a lot of people who were there on the day would say, Sprinter’s comeback in the Champion Chase was the most memorable day of my Cheltenham days … probably any day. It was an extraordinary scene.
Sprinter Sacre gave Nicky Henderson his most special moment at the Cheltenham Festival (Simon Cooper/PA)
“The public welcome and everything was unforgettable. It was very special.”
Long Run (2011) and Bobs Worth (2013) are Henderson’s two Gold Cup winners. He looks to Champ and Santini to give him a third.
Champ’s late surge to land the RSA Insurance Chase last year makes the trainer believe he will stay the distance.
“That was an extraordinary performance,” he said.
“It was sort of reminiscent of dear old Might Bite, where you thought he was out of it and not going to feature and from the second last to the last he was dropping back.
“It looked as though he was going to finish a moderate third jumping the last. I was focusing on those up front, and all of a sudden he came back into sight and swept past them – which proves an important thing, stamina.”
Champ on his way to the gallops at Nicky Henderson’s yard (David Davies/PA)
Santini was runner-up in 2020 but has to bounce back from defeats in all his three starts of this campaign.
“He’s had a difficult season,” said Henderson, who is saddened there will be no crowds because of Covid-19 restrictions but delighted the meeting is going ahead.
“It’s going to be very strange, because we are going to be sitting or standing and suffering throughout the build-up to the races on our own, with no owners and nobody to talk to and nobody to hold each other’s hands,” he said.
“It’s very sad that we’re not going to have the people there to share it with us – but it’s terrific that we’re racing, and that’s the most important thing.
“Television comes into its own, and we’ll show the world everything we’ve got.”
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