Henderson thrills to heartbeat of victory
Ask Nicky Henderson about what fires his continued desire to succeed in racing and he places his hand on his heart.
‘This goes boom, boom, boom every day,’ the 66-year-old trainer says, patting his chest. ‘Even watching a bumper at Market Rasen at home on the television. I suspect the day it doesn’t do that I’ll be off.’
Henderson will be hoping boomboom dramatic moments at sandown this afternoon are kept to a minimum.
With a lead of £165,138 over rival Paul Nicholls, a fourth jump trainers’ championship may not quite be in the bag but Henderson should be confident enough to leave room in his car boot to take the trophy back to his Lambourn base after the final day of the 2016-17 season. Henderson has the insurance of 16 entries this afternoon, hot favourite Altior in the Celebration Chase and sugar Baron and Vyta Du Roc in the Bet365 Gold Cup.
Nicholls, who 12 months ago was holding off Willie Mullins to land his 10th title, kept this season’s tussle alive with the victory of Vicente in last saturday’s scottish National.
The reigning champion has darts to fire, including 2015 winner and 2016 runner-up Just A Par in the Bet365 Gold Cup, but only an extraordinary turn of events will see the coronation of Henderson derailed.
Henderson has outscored his rival 7-2 on Grade One wins and his title charge has been built on the performances of Cheltenham Festival winning novice chasers Altior and Might Bite as well as Buveur D’Air, who switched back from novice chasing to beat stablemate My Tent Or Yours in the Champion Hurdle.
Henderson said: ‘Our season has revolved around young horses coming through and the future looks bright. If I was ever thinking about retiring, I would not be doing it with this lot around.
‘One of the few things I got right about the season was that the novice chasers were the vital department. We had been light on chasers in the last few years and could not win any of the big chases. There were so many of them that Buveur D’Air got switched back to hurdles and won the Champion Hurdle.
‘To be fair to Paul, he has not got his strongest hand of cards at the moment. He has still won a staggering amount of races and prize-money. He is amazingly consistent and very driven.’
On this day a year ago, Henderson landed the Celebration Chase with his dual Champion Chaser sprinter sacre.
His likely title win was achieved without the outstanding gelding’s help after sprinter sacre was retired with a tendon injury hours before he was due to make his seasonal comeback at Cheltenham in November.
Later that afternoon, another Henderson Cheltenham Festival winner, simonsig, suffered a fatal fall. Henderson said: ‘sprinter sacre’s retirement was the end of the most extraordinary passage. To say goodbye to him was tough and then what happened to simonsig made you say “Blimey”. But, in a funny way, those things make you more determined.’ CLASSIC winning Flat jockey George Baker has returned home for the first time since suffering serious head injuries in a fall while riding on the frozen lake at st Moritz in February.
After returning to Britain Baker was treated at the Wellington Hospital in London and Glenside Rehabilitation centre in salisbury.