Nicky Henderson is looking at the bigger picture with promising six-year-old Califet En Vol following his win in Thursday's Sidney Banks Memorial Novices' Hurdle.
Huntingdon's Listed two and a half-mile contest has been won by some star performers over the years, not least the Henderson-trained Shishkin (2020), who went on to follow up in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham.
However, Califet En Vol (5/4 favourite) will not be heading to Prestbury Park next month, following his fast-finishing half-length victory over No Questions Asked (11/1).
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Henderson told Racing TV: “He is a big baby. I was actually staggered where we were standing, how big he actually is. He’s deceptive because you walk into his box and he doesn’t look like a big horse, but I just stood into him here on a perfectly level playing field and he’s about two inches taller than I thought he was last night.
“But he stays well. That was two-three and a bit, and I’d have preferred two-five and a bit. He’d need further than that. The one thing was, that if he was going to be in touch turning in and at the last, you’d be fairly confident he would come home from there, so I thought that was a good performance from a big baby.”
When pushed about a spring campaign, Henderson added: “I’d say if he went anywhere, you might look at the three miles at Aintree, but I don’t even know that we need to do that.
“It’s only his third hurdle race and he had one bumper last year, so he’s as big a baby as you’d wish to see, but he’s a lovely, great-looking horse – he’ll be chasing next year and it could be a lot of fun."
Prior to the Sidney Banks win, Califet En Vol had finished three lengths adrift of subsequent Challow Hurdle winner The New Lion in a novice event at Newbury in November. The New Lion can be backed at 11/4 with Sky Bet for the Turners Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham, with Final Demand now heading the antepost market at 15/8 on the back of his striking success at the Dublin Racing Festival.
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