Henderson pays tribute to Buveur D’Air

NICKY Henderson paid a heartfelt tribute to Buveur D’Air after connections confirmed the dual Champion Hurdle winner’s retirement.

The JP McManus-owned gelding claimed the two-mile hurdling crown at Cheltenham in 2017 and 2018 – and may well have completed the hattrick the following year but for falling at the third flight.

The 11-year-old won 17 of his 27 races overall, with eight Grade One victories also including Kempton’s Christmas Hurdle, two Fighting Fifth Hurdles at Newcastle and the Punchestown Champion Hurdle.

Henderson said: “Buveur D’Air was one of the real friends, he really was. He was very special and he was very, very good too.

“He was a spectacular horse with a wonderful temperament and his jumping was exemplary. You go back to See You Then and Binocular and that was the great secret to those hurdlers we’ve been lucky enough to have – they could all jump a hurdle so fast it was incredible.”

Buveur D’Air may not even have run in the Champion Hurdle had it not been for his esteemed stable companion Altior.

Altior beat him into third place in the 2016 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and both horses embarked on careers over fences the following autumn.

Henderson, though, was keen to avoid the pair locking horns and spotted an opening in the

Champion Hurdle division he felt Buveur D’Air could exploit.

“We went chasing with him and I can actually say he’s retired unbeaten over fences, albeit he only ran twice,” said the Seven Barrows handler. “We just thought that the Champion Hurdle looked wide open. Either Altior or Buveur D’Air could have switched, we went Buveur D’Air and it paid off.”