David Ord on Nicky Henderson's 2020 Cheltenham Festival team and the trainer's burning desire

So what do you say to a man who is parading five Unibet Champion Hurdle contenders in front of you?

Well, which one is your best chance will do for starters?

"We’ll have a competition here with the staff, we usually do," Nicky Henderson mused. “They’ll predict the order in which the five will finish, they will all disagree and probably no-one will get it right."

You sense most will have Epatante in pole position, the bookmakers do. She's a mare who at Kempton in the Christmas Hurdle was electric. It's hard to find holes in her in such an open year other than her failure to justify her position as the Seven Barrows banker in the Dawn Run last term.

It was down to Cheltenham they say. It wasn’t according to her trainer, instead the effects of the flu jab she’d been given as part of the BHA regulations following the outbreak that threatened the very Festival itself.

She didn’t sparkle then but her trainer insists it wasn’t the track.

But then it’s Pentland Hills who seems to get him more animated. He admits it’s gut-feeling rather than an obvious physical ailment that has led connections to cauterise his palate since we last saw him at Haydock

It just went wrong after the back of the last in Merseyside. He travelled and jumped like the best horse in the race only to cut out when he should have been going clear. Ballyandy needed no second invitation to snare a few quid on the road to Cheltenham.

There'll be a change of tactics in the Champion – a more restrained ride too although his slickness over a hurdle means Nico De Boinville might always be fighting a battle to keep the breaks on.

Nothing came to light to explain Fusil Raffles’ flop at Kempton but he’ll head to Cheltenham fresh – as will Call Me Lord, who the team felt ran flat in the Contenders at Sandown.

Then there’s Verdana Blue, who on good ground might be the pick of the lot but with Prestbury Park currently soft, heavy in places and at least another week of unsettled weather forecast, we’re heading to Hail Mary territory for that.

There’s enthusiasm – and a lot of it – over Shishkin's chances in the Sky Bet Supreme – a horse Henderson has complete faith in and a race he knows what it takes to win. If he gets his way he won’t be joined by Chantry House who he’d prefer to step up in trip for the Ballymore.

But then JP McManus already has Sporting John for that. Nicky has a wonderfully persuasive way about him though, just ask Joe Donnelly.

Santini looked a picture ahead of his run in the Magners Cheltennham Gold Cup and Altior has bounced out of Newbury. He’s back where his trainer wants him, fit, firing and over two miles at Cheltenham.

He’s in deep this time around – deeper than before – but the way he hit the line in Berkshire suggests if he’s within a length of Chacun Pour Soi and Defi Du Seuil jumping the last at Cheltenham they’ll have the fight of their lives up the hill.

It’s about Plan C to take Champ to the RSA via a racecourse gallop following his late fall in the Dipper, but his trainer is comfortable with that. Then there’s Mister Fisher – Marsh on decent ground, Racing Post Arkle if it gets deep.

It’s an enviably strong hand – even if there are various cards that might still be shuffled in the next few weeks – and the fire in Henderson’s belly burns brighter than ever.

Tuesday is a big day for him and while you sense there’s a safety in numbers policy in the Unibet Champion Hurdle – he’d be happy to fly solo with Shishkin in the curtain-raiser. There was the definite sense he was the big hope for the week.

"Win the Sky Bet Supreme and the pressure for the week is off," Henderson grinned. He might well be sporting an even wider smile after race one next month.

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