Is sport’s cause or’ by Elliott
an evangelist for his trade as you could hope to find. Barely has the sun peeked over the Berkshire horizon than the horses in his care are paraded before him, so that he can gauge exactly what they need for their morning exercise, and on which gallop.
“Faringdon Road for you,” he barks at one jockey. “Allweather for you,” he tells another. At his side is his assistant, Charlie Morlock, who provides rapid-fire updates on how much work and schooling the horses have had so far. Together, they make a formidable duo.
By his own admission, Henderson’s eyesight is failing him these days. I am standing barely two metres away and he says: “I can’t see your face.” On a glowering late winter’s morning, with sunshine one moment and downpours the next, it makes a journey across his yard in his battered Jeep a novel experience. “You have no idea how much danger you’re in,” he laughs. Still, his ocular issues appear no barrier to his understanding of his animals.
Driving alongside them on their walk back to the stables, he shouts his instructions to jockeys out of the window. “Good for one more run,” he assures one, listening to Morlock advising from the back seat. “No, that’ll do you,” he says to the next.
Henderson is never more chipper than when seeing his Cheltenham contenders thunder out of the mist still clearing in the Valley of the Racehorse.
Watching them surge up the hill is such conditions is a rare privilege. The views of the verdant countryside are unbroken, save for a glimpse of Sir Anthony Mccoy’s house in the distance, and the peace is pierced only by the approach of thundering hooves. Thrilled, Henderson declares that Santini and Champ, his two runners in the Gold Cup, have never looked better.
His connection to Cheltenham runs deep. After all, it was his father, Johnny, once the long-serving aide-decamp to Field Marshal Montgomery, who helped to save the place. “In 1968, he set up a non-profit-making company called Racecourse Holdings
‘We must show this is a fantastic sport, and one incident shouldn’t tarnish it’
Trust, and he bought Cheltenham for £360,000 when it was under threat from developers. As a result, one of the races at the Festival is named after him. It’s pretty inspirational, because without him and a couple of other guys, it might be a housing estate.”
For all that it is his love and his life, Cheltenham can also bring him intolerable stress. During this interview, Henderson’s wife, Sophie, wanders into the office to inform him that Energumene, the main threat to his ambitions of victory for Shishkin this week, has been withdrawn from the Arkle. “Just shows you, doesn’t it?” he says. “Absolutely,” she replies.
“It could happen to us.” Sure enough, a little later, it does, with confirmation that Altior is out of the Champion Chase with a cough.
Altior will, you sense, be happy enough in his stable for the week. Such are the lengths to which Henderson will go for his horses, they even have their own foot bath here, an extra layer of pampering introduced during the first lockdown.
It is, as Cheltenham returns, a powerful reassurance that for all the damage inflicted by Elliott, there are places where a trainer’s bond with his magnificent creatures can never be broken. “All this, it cannot be ruined by one totally unacceptable, idiotic incident,” Henderson argues. “I hope people realise one moment of madness shouldn’t lead to the destruction of a great sport.”