Unibet ambassador Nicky Henderson has been giving his thoughts on some of his stable stars ahead of the upcoming Jumps season.
CHASERS
We like him. I couldn’t quite work him out (last season), his first run over fences he jumped brilliantly and put in a top-class performance at Sandown. He literally never touched a twig all the way around and won really nicely. He then went to Kempton, walked through the first fence, broke the second and then fell at the third or fourth. He couldn’t get off the ground. He came back here and was perfectly all right. He showed at Sandown what he is capable of doing and we’ve got to get back to that. He is a lovely horse.
I think he looks ideal for the Grand National but Daryl (Jacob) doesn’t agree with me. He doesn’t need extreme distances but he’ll keep galloping. The Welsh National doesn’t strike me as his sort of race to be honest with you, but there will be good staying handicaps for him all season. He’s pretty forward but he’s very burly at the minute and you can’t do any sort of work on this ground with him so we’ve just got to wait until it rains.
He is the horse who has pleased me the most over the summer. We’ve done two things. His wind has been done and he’s had some back surgery which undoubtedly was needed. You get the sort of feeling those things have helped him and his whole demeanour is “I’m happy, I’m free”.
I don’t know if big fields are really what he wants. He needs a big track. I considered the Coral Gold Cup as Newbury is a good track for him but you’re going to get a full field of rough and tumble. He quite likes his own space and those smaller fields help.
We had him in the National for a long time last year but then what with him not wanting big fields I rather contradicted myself. We’ll see how he goes, finding somewhere to start is going to be very difficult but he’s in great shape at the moment and we’re all very happy with him.
We’ve always tried to use that intermediate chase at Sandown for horses like Chantry House and Santini. I would have thought that would be the obvious starting point (for Dusart), I like the race. They keep threatening to lose it from the calendar because there are only ever three or four runners, but then where do you start these horses if you don’t give them a chance to come through? It’s crazy to do away with these races.
He’s always looked a decent horse and he has had back surgery too which I think will help him. He stays three miles.
We are thinking of mixing and matching with him over hurdles and fences. We were thinking about Wetherby but we’re not going to get there in time. He won the Charlie Hall there last year and then ran some decent races. He disappointed us a few times. He wants some decent ground and we might slot a hurdles race in here and there.
He is still a novice. He’s in good form but he needs cut in the ground. He is a novice with a lot of experience so we can use that. You can run him in a handicap, you can run him in a novice. It would be nice to go and win a little race to start off with.
I always think the Peterborough Chase is an obvious race for him which he has won before. The Peterborough is over two-and-a-half around Huntingdon although it was actually around Cheltenham when he won it. I wouldn’t mind having another look at three miles. Good ground is essential, he looks fantastic. He’s essentially a good Grade Two horse, he doesn’t quite make a Grade One horse.
He looks great and we’ve got over his issues hopefully. They shouldn’t repeat themselves. We would still be thinking we might get to the Tingle Creek but I’m not going to say we are because you know what happens if we don’t. If we don’t get to the Tingle Creek we will follow last year’s route which will be Kempton and then the Clarence House Chase (at Ascot). If we can get to Sandown we will. He looks really, really well. We haven’t done anything fast with him yet but we’ve got plenty of time.
In a fortnight’s time he’d be ready for Nico to have a sit on him and see what he thinks. He knows him very well and we’re nearly there but that will be the acid test. He will get two miles and four furlongs, there’s no doubt about it, but for most of these races because of the pace they go you need to stay well. He stayed really well at Ascot when he beat Energumene. It was stamina and quite a lot of bravery that got him there. It was perfectly obvious from the word “Go” at Cheltenham that something wasn’t right. Funnily enough in the days leading up to the race we’d been very happy with him. He did have a very hard race at Ascot. It was tough on both of them but Energumene came back okay. Let’s have round three and four.
HURDLERS
He’s down the road at a dressage establishment doing loads of dressage work to try and build up the back-end muscles that he lost as a result of the fractured pelvis. When you stand as still as he had to for two months, the muscle will waste. He is not symmetric from behind at the moment, but it’s getting there. He’s doing good work. We’ll just continue to wander along and he’ll tell us when he wants to. If he’s happy, we’re happy and there’s 100% chance he’s not going to come to any harm then the plan is to crack on.
Call Me Lord has been a great servant all the way through. We did try a bit of steeplechasing at one time and I think Daryl made our mind up for us. He didn’t think it was a good idea. He’s very versatile although I think we’ll leave the chasing out of it.
He looks fantastic. He was disappointing at Cheltenham but if you go back to Ascot (for the Long Walk Hurdle) he was really good. He’s been great, I love the horse. I would think he would follow a similar route again. I can’t say we wouldn’t school him over fences again because his back has been done again. I’d like to see what he says.
At the moment we’re thinking Epatante will go to Newcastle and Constitution Hill will go to Ascot for the Coral Hurdle. The great thing about him is he relaxes so much so he can go that little bit further.
We’d briefly looked at Punchestown last year to take on Honeysuckle but I don’t think it was ever likely to happen. He will jump fences at some point, there’s no doubt about that but he’ll have to try and win a Champion Hurdle first.
If he’s just doing a Monday morning canter you wouldn’t pick him out from the crowd. A lot of the good horses do tend to stand out but he doesn’t stand out until you ask him for it and that’s the great thing about him. He does as much as he has to, as much as we ask him to, until you ask him to do that little bit more and then it’s electric. Then he shows you he’s a very good horse. Once we found the button then we found the horse.
He is very laid-back. By and large we’ve got quite a lot of Blue Bresil’s and they seem to have fantastic temperaments. They’ve got great heads on them and their minds are really good.
She’s very well. She has done some work. As we said last year, if we can win the Fighting Fifth and then the Christmas Hurdle we’ll have done a good job. Anything else we could win after that would be a bonus.
She had to halve the Fighting Fifth last year, she got no run in the race at all so she did well to get up. She was impressive at Kempton (in the Christmas Hurdle), finished second in the Champion Hurdle and then won another Grade One at Aintree. She won three Grade Ones so she had a super year. She’s in very good form and if the Fighting Fifth was tomorrow she’d be ready to run. She got the trip very well at Aintree which opens up a few extra avenues.
I was thinking he could go for the Gerry Feilden at Newbury. He ran some very good races last year in his first season in training. He did really well and was second in two competitive handicaps so I thought the Gerry Feilden would suit him well. He’s got plenty of size and would jump a fence if you wanted him to.
He had a good first season and he’s just furnishing up a little bit at the moment. He’ll jump a fence in time but I would say we’ve got some unfinished business over hurdles.
He’s starting to work rather nicely at the moment. He’s a nice horse and we should have some fun with him. He’s quite a nice-looking individual.
He’s had a wind operation and we’ve cauterised his palate. He had been a little bit noisy prior to the race (at Chepstow) and we were suspicious but it definitely showed in the race.
If you go back to her first year here she was favourite for the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle (at the Cheltenham Festival) and sadly went wrong just before it. She came back into training two years ago and did nothing; she wouldn’t do anything. We put her away and she returned last summer a completely different horse.
She won her first race of the season, she then got knocked over in the Lanzarote, we were still in handicaps at the time. She won a listed race at Warwick, then we went to Cheltenham and won the Mares’ Hurdle there and then she finished up with a second Grade One at Punchestown. She was effectively champion mare.
We know Marie’s Rock wants two-and-a-half miles but it might be a question of moving her up to three. I can’t see why she wouldn’t get it.
She’s done really well, she looks great. We were thinking of going to Wetherby on Charlie Hall day but to be fair the ground isn’t going to be quite right and she’s not going to be quite right. We’ll go for a Mares’ Listed race and she’ll have to keep creeping up. She surprised us last year and she’s an exciting mare. She’s done everything nicely but she’s not as forward as she would need to be to get to Wetherby and the ground won’t be any good there anyway.
He was a difficult one because he’d only had one run when he won very nicely at Newbury last season. We would have been very disappointed if he hadn’t mind you. We could have then won another novice hurdle but we decided to chuck him in at the deep end.
He’s another who’s had a bit of back surgery which seems to have helped him a lot. That was what was hindering him towards the end of last season. He’s really good now and he looks like a big booming chaser. The dam stayed three-miles and I’m pretty sure he would too so he is going to be a three-mile chaser, it’s just a matter of when he goes chasing. A little bit more experience over hurdles might not be a bad thing. He’s up to speed with all of the others.
NOVICE CHASERS
I think he is very good, at least I hope he is. He jumps fences beautifully and he’s quite forward. He looks very well. He’s going to get two-and-a-half miles which would help as we would like to keep him and Jonbon apart.
He does have a habit of finishing second. I don’t know why, but he runs fine races every time. He’ll put it together and go and win five on the bounce in a minute. I’ve always liked him.
He’s grown a lot over the summer. He’s done everything right so far. He has schooled over fences and has been very good, he gets three-miles. He could be a lot of fun.
He’s a good horse and he could be anything. I think I’d start him over hurdles but we’d then be looking to go over fences pretty soon.
He’s in great order. He’s moving beautifully and he has summered very well, all the Martinstown horses did and they’ve come back in great nick.
He hasn’t seen a fence yet. He could be ready for the Henry VII at Sandown at the beginning of December. He would get two-and-a-half miles but I’m thinking he is an Arkle horse at the moment. He’s fresh and well, and in really good form.
He has schooled over fences and been absolutely excellent. He’s a three-mile novice chaser and could be exciting.
His greatest weapon is his jumping. He’s a far better hurdler than he is a flat horse because he’s a brilliant jumper. He has schooled over fences and he’s very, very good. We’ve been sitting all summer waiting for some ground to run him on the flat, bearing in mind we knew he was incredibly well-handicapped. He’s rated 150 over hurdles and 70 on the flat. That’s a very big discrepancy so it’s no surprise we used it. He didn’t go up a lot for it because he only won narrowly but we were delighted with it. The horse is in good form and he does jump very well.
I’ve purposely gone very slowly with him since Haydock to try and avoid the dreaded bounce factor. Rain might come sometime and then we’ll launch him over fences.
He had a funny sort of season (last year). We were left scratching our heads a little bit. We did a very quick wind operation on him at the backend of last season and he won very easily as a result of it. He’s still a novice over hurdles as he didn’t win till May.
I’m very pleased with his work at the moment. He has schooled over fences. We will start over hurdles because he’s still a novice over hurdles. I can see him having two halves to the season (starting over hurdles before switching to fences). I hope he’ll do plenty of racing because that’s what these syndicates are there for. I expect him to be busy.
He’s jumping well. He’s got a lot of scope and size. He’d like cut in the ground and I’d like to think he could be good.
She’s a lovely filly who has been a great success over hurdles and the plan is to go novice chasing with her. She’s schooled and she’s been very good.
He’s a horse that is progressing and progressing. He’s going to be a proper, staying chaser.
I like him. He’s done very little wrong and has got some solid form over hurdles. He’s not as robust a horse as Kincardine but he’s athletic and jumps very well.
NOVICE HURDLERS & BUMPER HORSES
Surprisingly she’s still a maiden over hurdles after two seasons but she has been running in some pretty grown-up races. We weren’t surprised she was second in the Mares’ Novices’ hurdle at Cheltenham. We got her black type and that is what we were aiming for all of last season.
We went back to the flat at the end of last season. She won a nice race at Newbury and then another valuable race at York and then we were all ready for Royal Ascot and couldn’t go because of the ground. We put her away for the Cesarewitch and I think things just didn’t go quite right for her. She’d gone in her coat the week before. Everything had been going really well, she’d had a good gallop at Newbury, and I was really happy but for me she flattened out a bit at the end. Ryan (Moore) felt she might not have seen out two-and-a-quarter miles.
We will go back to two miles and the objective would be the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham again. She ran really well in it last season. We ummed and aahed whether to run her because that was the day the ground went very soft. We very nearly pulled her out and then she ran the race of her life. I think the obvious thing to do is to let her win a hurdle race on the way and keep her for the festival.
Amrons Sage
He’s one of the point-to-pointers. We’ve liked everything we’ve seen so far. He’s a very straightforward horse.
He ran very respectably in two bumpers. He’s ready to go over hurdles and jumps well.
Ballyhigh
He’s by Canford Cliffs who isn’t you’re average national hunt sire. He’s a good-looking horse and I think he goes rather well.
Between Waters
She’s lovely, very lovely. She has settled down very well as she was quite feisty to start with. You would probably like that in a filly but she’s been very good since and she’s settled really well into her work and routine. She’s by Walk In The Park and won her only point-to-point. She looks very classy.
He’s a nice horse. He won a point-to-point and had two runs which were good. I think he wants keeping an eye on.
She’s a lovely filly. She does everything right. She won a bumper in Ireland. She is a fine big mare. She is ready to run.
He’s got good form. He was beaten on both starts but I was a bit disappointed he didn’t win one. I would say we think he is quite good; I like him.
Easy Rider
I like him a lot. He is a beautiful horse by Sixties Icon. He didn’t get to the track last year but only because he is big and the ground got quick. He did everything rather nicely.
At the beginning of last season we thought we had some very good novice hurdlers. Russian Ruler would certainly have been one of them but nothing went right for him. I don’t know why. We had a couple of runs but he wasn’t doing what I hoped he would do. The other one was Firestep who never got to run at all. They’re both coming into this season with a good, clean bill of health and no problems.
Firestep just had niggly problems (last season). There was nothing you could put your hand on, it was just a little part of a leg that was going on and off. It was stop, start so we just put him away. He’s a big horse and so everyone was happy for us to put him away.
He showed a good level last season. Not to Boom Boom’s level, he’s a little bit more backward than him funnily enough but he won’t be far off either.
Impose Toi and Imberico Lord
They are two four-year-old’s who have come from France. One of them won two and one of them one won bumper. They’ve schooled well and it won’t be long before we find out. Lovely horses.
Immortal
I like him a lot. He’s a lovely, big horse. He’s got a great temperament.
Jet Powered
Has done nothing wrong. He was getting silly injuries last season and I didn’t get a run into him. The ground dried up too quickly but we liked everything we saw.
He’s a new one to us this year. He’d never run before but we started in a bumper at Warwick which he won very nicely. He’s schooled over hurdles and is ready to run over hurdles.
One run and one win in a bumper (last season). She’s a nice filly and the half-sister to Firestep. Minty, Jerry McGrath, myself and Peter Maloney bought her thinking when Firestep has won the Supreme we’re going to be sitting on a goldmine. We sold her and she won her bumper first time out so everyone’s happy.
Love Bites
She’s a gorgeous filly. She’s by Milan. She’s a full sister to Beat That and a half-sister to Might Bite. She is lovely.
She could be very good, she was ridiculously good at Sandown last season. I think she won a mares’ listed bumper by seventeen lengths without coming off the bridle. We then had a horrible hiccup and It was frightening but she’s back. She’s cantering, she’s schooled and everything seems fine.
I like her, she’s lovely. We ran her in one bumper in the latter part of the spring at Worcester. She won very nicely. Gordon Elliott came over with one for that who I think they fancied and we beat that quite nicely. She jumps well and starts straight over hurdles
He’s an interesting one, he came from a point-to-point bumper which he’d won. We took him to Exeter for a point-to-point bumper which is for horses who have run in an English point-to-point and he won that really well. He could be very interesting.
Persian Time
Another lovely big point-to-pointer. We’ve got a pretty strong squad I would like to think from the Irish point-to-point field last year. I would like to think Persian Time would be right up there. He’s got loads of scope. I wouldn’t see any point in running him in a bumper.
I like him, he’s new to us this year. He is a fine, big horse. He does everything nicely and we’ve had him ready to run for quite some time now.
Private Ryan
I like him, he’s by Presenting. He moves very well and jumps very well. A very, very good-looking horse.
At the beginning of last season we thought we had some very good novice hurdlers. Russian Ruler would certainly have been one of them but nothing went right for him. I don’t know why. We had a couple of runs but he wasn’t doing what I hoped he would do.
He is coming into this season with a good, clean bill of health and no problems.
Swapped
He is really well schooled over hurdles. He jumps great and is ready to run.
The Brewmaster
He was a point-to-pointer, he is a lovely big horse. He is a three-mile chaser in the making.
The Happy Chapati
He is a nice horse. He’s a half-brother to The New One. He looks as though he should be a sharp horse.
She will go straight over hurdles. She jumps very well. She’s got some respectable form from last season, she just didn’t win but she’s a nice mare and she jumps very well. She could be very, very good.
We bought her after she was second in her bumper, then she came out and won very nicely. I like her, she schools well and is ready to go in novice hurdles for Highclere.
More from Sporting Life
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing features
- Download our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.