“Everything’s working, that’s the great thing,” Nicky Henderson said here on Sunday after Sprinter Sacre’s narrow success in the Desert Orchid Chase, two years to the day after a dramatic failure to complete in the same race. “There are no holes in him now. His heart works, his breathing’s working and he’s not making noises,” added the trainer.
It was only natural for Henderson to grasp at the many positives in Sprinter Sacre’s performance, and another Grade Two victory on the record of a horse who seemed odds-against to see any racecourse again when he left here after suffering an irregular heartbeat in December 2013. Henderson has steered his return to winning form quite brilliantly.
While everything is working, however, everything is also two years older. This was a brave and hard-fought success against Sire De Grugy, a horse who went on to win the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in 2014 after taking this race when all eyes were on the beaten favourite, pulled up by Barry Geraghty after jumping seven fences.
At the same time, though, it seemed to confirm that while Sprinter Sacre remains a talented chaser, the overwhelming brilliance that allowed him to dominate the two-mile division at his best has probably gone for good.
For much of the race, Sire De Grugy looked the stronger, better horse, and the more likely winner from the third-last to the last. A slow jump there allowed Sprinter Sacre and Nico de Boinville to grab a lead that they held to the line, but Sire De Grugy lost enough momentum to make it at least arguable that the mistake cost him victory.
“Today he had to be a completely different Sprinter in a funny way,” Henderson said. “You got the feeling that two miles around here is just sharp enough for him. He had to go and lock horns with [Sire De Grugy] down the back and he couldn’t just sweep past him like he can on a stiffer track.
“There was that concern about coming back to Kempton, but his heart was in that all right, and Nico gave him a lovely ride. They had to be very brave at the last but he’s that sort of horse. He’s got the class but sometimes you’ve got to tough it out as well, and he did. It’s a step forward, and a different step this time.”
Sire De Grugy returned to form himself last time out with a Grade One victory in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown, so the connections of both horses can now head towards the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in March with realistic hopes of victory. Any racegoers expecting a repeat of Sprinter Sacre’s win in the race in 2013, however, when he dismissed his field by 19 lengths at odds of 1-4, will surely be disappointed.
What is in prospect is an outstanding and competitive renewal of the Champion Chase with the last three winners of the race – Sprinter Sacre, Sire De Grugy and Dodging Bullets – up against the young tearaway Un De Sceaux, the winner of last year’s Arkle Trophy. Vautour, edged out in the final stride of the King George VI Chase here on Saturday, could also emerge as a wild card in the field. Sprinter Sacre’s new price of 9-2 second-favourite – out from 7-2 on Sunday morning – is a fair measure of his chance, while Sire De Grugy can be backed at 8-1.
Gary Moore, the trainer of Sire De Grugy, would not speculate about the possible outcome had his chaser put in a big jump at the last. “It’s very easy to say yes [he would have won],” Moore said, “but that’s what they’re there for and if you don’t jump them, you don’t win.”
Henderson remains uncertain whether Sprinter Sacre will have another race before Cheltenham but seems to be persuading himself that his horse will be better fresh in March. “The point of coming here today was to decide whether he needed another run, and I can’t say he’s categorically answered that either way,” Henderson said.
“Did we go once too often [in 2013] when we went to Cheltenham and we were always going to Ireland [in late April], and I threw in Aintree [in early April] quite late?
“He had three races in a very short space of time. It looked as though he’s always having easy races in those days, but if you’re doing what he’s doing and you’re getting that adrenalin into him, and he has these public performances, it might look easy but you still have to put an awful lot into it.
“In my heart, I know that that third run was one too many, and he’s just as good fresh as he is very fit. So I’d be leaning maybe not to go in again.”
Moore got the better of Henderson in the preceding novice chase, as his frontrunner Ar Mad got back up to beat Vaniteux after being headed approaching the last. The trainer was adamant after Ar Mad’s win in the Henry VIII Chase in December that Cheltenham would not suit him, but now seems inclined to let Ar Mad take his chance in the Arkle Trophy after all. “It is something we are going to have to try,” Moore said. “It is the obvious race for him.”
