Nicky out to give Brits a flying start
NICKY Henderson is hoping one of his star young hurdlers, Constitution Hill or Jonbon, can give Britain a flying start in the opener, the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, today.
At last year’s Festival, Irish-trained horses won 23 of the 28 races, and the home team saddled just five winners – one of which was Henderson’s Shishkin in the Arkle Trophy on the opening day.
But the Seven Barrows handler seems to have two viable chances of beginning with a winner, with both his unbeaten novice hurdlers among the market leaders.
And although both horses have different profiles, Henderson is happy to see them take each other on.
He said: “It was always the plan to run them both, but they are like cheese and chalk.
“Jonbon will always be a bit flighty, it’s probably a help he’s in the first race and we’ll have ways and means of hopefully keeping the lid on him because he’ll be the one on his toes. We’ll protect him from the atmosphere.
“Nothing will worry Constitution Hill, he’s just so laid back!
“Jonbon had a proper race at Haydock, but he quickened up twice in horrible ground which I was pleased with. By running Constitution Hill again, I was never going to find a competitive race. There wasn’t anywhere else to go where you were going to get more than four or five runners (like in the Tolworth Hurdle).”
Henderson’s last two winners of the race, Altior and the aforementioned Shishkin – who bids for more Festival glory in tomorrow’s Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase – went on to become stars over fences. And Henderson has compared his latest hopes to those two.
He added: “I think they are both very strong. Like Altior and Shishkin, you would like to think they are in their sort of league.
“We want to see England 1 Ireland 0. It is nice to have two, as two is better than one.”
I’M already hiding behind the sofa fearing the worst – and that’s BEFORE the tape goes up at Cheltenham!
The bottom line is that we have three big odds-on favourites in the first three days, starting with Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle feature this afternoon.
Henry De Bromhead’s eightyear-old is 4/6 at Betfred to make history and become the first mare to win the race twice.
And she has a fantastic chance of sending me off to Blackpool rather than Barbados for my hols with a famous win – and it will have to be a campsite this summer if Shishkin (also 4/6) triumphs in the Champions Chase tomorrow and 4/7 shot Allaho is first past the post in the Ryanair Chase on Thursday.
So many thousands of wily Betfred customers have lumped on a 3/1 treble which would cost me close to two million quid.
My message is bring it on! If I lose, so what – I will always pay out with a smile.
Enjoy the best racing in the world as much as me, it really doesn’t get much better than this.