Champion trainer Nicky Henderson today admitted he is struggling to get his horses ready for next month’s Cheltenham Festival following the equine flu outbreak.
Two of Henderson’s Cheltenham hopes, Santini and Verdana Blue, cannot race this weekend because of the British Horseracing Authority’s new vaccination rules as the sport resumed in the UK on Wednesday after a six-day suspension.
And Henderson said: “We’re struggling and it’s all making it a very tricky situation. Every horse is suddenly in a different regime, they’ve had to take a few days and we’re taking everything day by day.
“But as a trainer this is how you show yourself and I hope people trust us that we know what we’re doing.”
Both Henderson and fellow trainer Dan Skelton, who currently leads the trainer standings this season, insisted the equine flu setback would not diminish Cheltenham as a spectacle.
Skelton, who has no runners today but whose horses return to racing action tomorrow, said: “Cheltenham is a mammoth event, the one that everyone’s still looking forward to. Our preparations may have changed but our plans for the festival haven’t.”
