Nicky Henderson’s string has struggled to find its familiar reliability this season and it has seemed at times that every afternoon of promise for his Lambourn stable has been followed by news of a setback to one of his stars. There was a distinctly upbeat air about Henderson here on Friday, however, as he not only recorded a double with two promising novice hurdlers but remained insistent that Sprinter Sacre, the brilliant 2013 Champion Chase winner, will be back on a racecourse this season.
“I thought Sprinter was really good this morning,” Henderson said after his juvenile Bivouac had beaten a field including the 1-2 favourite Baraka De Thaix in the opening race. “But nobody will believe me of course. He went nearly 12 furlongs with Bob’s Worth [the 2013 Gold Cup winner] and I liked both of them.
“He looked great and everything [including the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton on 27 December] is a possibility, but there’s no rush. Most people don’t believe he exists any more, so I just do it on my own to amuse myself.”
The Desert Orchid Chase will mark a year to the day since Sprinter Sacre lost his unbeaten record over fences when he was pulled up mid-race with an irregular heartbeat. His stablemate Oscar Whisky will represent Henderson in Saturday’s Tingle Creek Chase, the race originally pencilled in for Sprinter Sacre’s seasonal debut, and his backers will hope he shows the same determination in the two-mile contest as the trainer’s Vyta Du Roc in Friday’s feature event, the Grade Two Neptune Investment Management Novice Hurdle.
Vyta Du Roc did not look the most obvious winner on the run to the second last as Tara Point was still going well in front but she did not find as much as seemed likely as Vyta Du Roc kicked on after the last. Shantou Bob, meanwhile, was finishing best of all down the middle of the track but Gavin Sheehan could not force his head in front as Barry Geraghty’s mount held on by a nose.
“He gets off the bridle so you’ve just got to keep him up to it all the time,” Henderson said, “but he’s going the right way through all his races. He’s won two pretty decent novices, they get him off the bridle early on and then he has to fight his way back. He’s not quite as slow as he’s making out. Barry said he nearly rode today as if it was his first run and he thinks he might come on again. I asked Barry if he needs two and a half [miles] and he said he wouldn’t have won at two, so you’d probably say he won’t go to the Tolworth [Hurdle at Sandown in January]. We’ll look more at the route to the Neptune [Novice Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March].”
Paul Nicholls is odds-on to retain the trainers’ championship which he won back from Henderson last season and Black Thunder, the winner of the John Tyndall Memorial Future Stars Chase, could develop into a leading member of his team of second-season chasers.
Black Thunder was a 4-6 chance with only three rivals to beat but he stamped his superiority on the contest in a few strides before coasting home 11 lengths clear of Rocky Bender and may now line up for the Argento Chase, a Gold Cup trial, at Cheltenham in late January.
“In hindsight we could have gone for the Hennessy with him,” Tom Jonason, Nicholls’ assistant, said, “but he’s best fresh and he just needed that extra bit of time. The Welsh National would come a bit soon for him and the ground would be heavy but he could go for the Argento on [Cheltenham] Trials day.”
Richard Johnson’s excellent start to the winter campaign came to an abrupt halt at Exeter on Friday when he was banned for 12 days for taking the wrong course in the Devon Marathon Handicap Chase.
Johnson steered to the inside of the water jump on the second circuit, apparently forgetting that it is missed out only on the opening lap of the track, since a water jump cannot be the first obstacle in a race.
Johnson’s 12-day suspension from 19 December to 2 January on days when racing is scheduled will rule him out of the Christmas fixture at Kempton Park, where he would have expected to ride Menorah in the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day.
