Confidence ”sky-high” for King George defence as jockey slams fences as being big and not fair

NICKY HENDERSON yesterday pledged Might Bite will mount his King George VI Chase defence “with his confidence sky-high” despite his blow out in Saturday’s Betfair Chase.

Punters sent the nine-year-old off the even-money hotpot for the Haydock Park test, but Might Bite and Nico De Boinville (right) walked over the finishing line last of five — 29 lengths behind the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained winner, Bristol De Mai.

Afterwards, De Boinville described the Haydock fences as “too big” and “not fair” — and Henderson is in no doubt the obstacles proved the favourite’s undoing.

Reporting Might Bite to be “sound” but with “a few scrapes”, the Seven Barrows trainer said yesterday: “He nudged the second or the third, and this horse that jumps with such fluidity — when he’s in full flow, he’s from fence to fence — went back to his old novice days, when he spent hours in the air.

“That’s totally unlike him and, when that happens, it not only takes physical energy but mental energy.

“This horse is not a coward or a shirker, but it unsettled him — he didn’t get what was going on.”

Might Bite is a best-priced 7-2 favourite to repeat his King George triumph of last year at Kempton Park, and Henderson added: “My concern now is making sure he is confident by the time we get to Kempton.

“I know what our problem is, and I know how to sort it out. “He’ll be back with his confidence sky-high.” Haydock’s clerk of the course Kirkland Tellwright insisted Haydock’s fences had been “the making” of Saturday’s race, but Henderson countered: “Both Nico and Dicky Johnson said they were verging on unfair. “Did it make it a better race? From my point of view, it certainly didn’t — it took Might Bite out of the race.”

Bristol De Mai, sixth in the 2017 King George, will renew rivalry at Kempton, while Betfair Chase second and third Native River and Thistlecrack are also likely to be in the line-up.

“They are both sound as a pound,” said Joe Tizzard, who trains both horses in partnership with his father, Colin.

“Thistlecrack won the race two years ago so it’s the obvious place for him, and there aren’t too many options for Native River, so I think you’ll probably see both of them there.”

Gordon Elliott will monitor conditions at Newcastle before committing Samcro to a clash with Henderson’s dual Champion Hurdler Buveur D’Air in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle on Saturday.

“The plan is still the Fighting Fifth,” Elliott said yesterday.