Nicky Henderson’s Cheltenham Festival candidates
The Cheltenham Festival’s most successful current trainer was the latest stop on Wednesday on the round of media open mornings before next month’s meeting, which opens on 14 March. Here is what he had to say about his leading contenders for the meeting’s Grade One events:
Buveur D’Air (Champion Hurdle)
I’ve always thought he was a Champion Hurdle horse even if he was good over fences [earlier in the season]. The change [in target] wasn’t totally because of what was happening to the Champion Hurdle. Annie Power going [out of the reckoning] made you think, but I’d said to Barry [Geraghty] at Cheltenham [in January], that he needed to come back into the Champion Hurdle whatever happened to Faugheen the next day. Within half an hour, Faugheen was out [of that race], but I was adamant before that that he needed to come back into a Champion Hurdle. From Buveur D’Air’s point of vew, he’s probably happy on good-to-soft ground, but if it goes soft, yes, that helps him, and goes against Brain Power and against My Tent Or Yours.
Brain Power (Champion Hurdle)
We’ve seen many come through handicaps and fall flat on their face at the first go. It’s always a big gap, but at [a rating of] 163, he’s got nowhere else to go. He’s got a very high cruising speed, and you need that. You’ve got to be able to travel through a pacey race, and he’s always been tanking. He worked very well on Monday and he cantered around Newbury after the Betfair Hurdle meeting. He looks really well, he’s done everything. The one thing you could say is that there is a ground situation here. He would love it good but it’s going to be good-to-soft or softer because it won’t be any better.
My Tent Or Yours (Champion Hurdle)
He’s actually a bit of a forgotten horse. He wasn’t sparkling [earlier in the season] but he’s in good form. He’ll love the race if only because what he wants is a really fast-run race with a proper gallop. A couple of times this year we’ve almost had to make the running with him, and we should have made the running in the Haydock race. If he’s the same horse as last year, he’d have to have a very good chance. He’ll go to Kempton on Monday I’d think [for a racecourse gallop].
Altior (Arkle)
He was an absolute banker in our opinon last year [in the Supreme Novice Hurdle] but he’s got to go out and do it again. He’s been in great form and everything is going great. We’re a long way from another Sprinter Sacre, but he’s creeping up the road. Now he’s got to come out and do the same in the Arkle, and if he does, there’s bound to be comparisons. There are now. After his second run we knew we were doing the right thing [to go over fences] but you could switch him to hurdles tomorrow if you wanted to. He wasn’t even favourite last year, but he has to do it this year. It’s like Sprinter’s Arkle, anything but a good performance won’t keep everybody happy. It’s all about jumping, and he was good around Sandown and great around Newbury, which was the first time that Nico [de Boinville] had ridden him. The one reason I really wanted to run him there was that it would give Nico a chance to go around a racecourse on him before Cheltenham, but he knows his way around, he’s won an Arkle before and he’s won the Supreme on this horse before. You could make him into a Flat horse any day you like. He’s can cruise along at any pace you like and then just change gear.
Might Bite (RSA Chase)
We said at the beginning of the season that this season was going to revolve around the novice chasers. It was horrible at Kempton [when he fell when a long way clear in the Kauto Star Novice Chase] and if it wasn’t for that you’d be confident, but he had a nice time around Doncaster the other day and he’s in good form. He’s only been on flat tracks, but lots of horses have gone to Cheltenham that have never been on an undulating track and I can’t believe that’s a worry. He doesn’t look as though he’s going very quickly, yet he was going around Kempton in a very, very fast time. He must have a very high cruising speed, and you don’t realise how fast he’s cruising along. It was going to be a staggering performance at Kempton, but we found him a soft race to get his confidence up again.
Whisper (JLT Novice Chase/RSA Novice Chase)
I’m pretty sure he’ll go for the JLT, but the RSA sort of makes you look. He’s been great, he can move up to three and he’s the one that’s just had me thinking a little bit. He stays three, he’s done it at Aintree for all those years, so it’s possible.
Charlie Parcs (Triumph Hurdle/Supreme Novice Hurdle)
I’d like to run him in the Triumph, I must admit. He’s very quick [over hurdles], a proper four-year-old hurdler. Of course, if you go into the Supreme, you get allowances but I’d like to go Triumph, we’ll just have to see. [JP McManus has] got a number of horses that will come into a number of categories and they have to put their team into the right places.
Top Notch (JLT Novice Chase)
We started out thinking we could pick up a couple of novice chases at smaller tracks because he wouldn’t have the scope for chasing, and then bring him back over hurdles, and maybe even try him over three miles. I know nobody likes two- and three-horse novice chases, but you can go round and give them confidence and it grew and grew and grew until suddenly we’re going around Sandown [in the Scilly Isles Novice Chase] and he’s the best jumper there is in the race. He loves soft ground, and two-and-a-half miles is helping him too. He’s got a tough task with Yorkhill, and I think Whisper will come into it as well.
Daphne Du Clos (Champion Bumper)
She is so tough and forward and mature, and she’s a four-year-old filly, which the history books say isn’t possible, but it looks open this year. She looked very good the other day [at Newbury] and she gets all the allowances, I think she’s got 10st 4lb.
Josses Hill/Vaniteux (Ryanair Chase)
They’re both in really good shape but Un De Sceaux is going to be a serious horse to take on. Good ground is very important to both, and Un De Sceaux likes it soft, and if it’s soft ground, I think he’ll be impossible to beat.
Wednesday’s best bets, by Greg Wood
Huntingdon was abandoned this morning owing to high winds but Cappananty Con (3.30) and Modernism (7.30) make some appeal on the Flat cards at Chelmsford and Wolverhampton respectively. The latter is in a claimer where Retrieve, who has twice finished second in Group One company including an Australian Derby, is an obvious favourite but possibly not one to back at a short price.
• This article was corrected on 24 February 2017 to show Altior’s target as the Arkle Novice Chase, not the Champion Chase as originally stated.
