Cheltenham 2023 Stable Tour - Nicky Henderson Festival Runners

He is fine, and everything is fine - he worked on Saturday, and we have a few more bits of work to do. He will probably have an awayday and go to Kempton - I would be thinking Newbury but the ground is just too quick at the moment anyway. Unless the weather changes dramatically we will go to Kempton, and I would like him to have a gallop. He’s been around the track and has broken records and you would have to say he’s done most things and he hasn’t done anything wrong but there is plenty that could go wrong and that’s the biggest issue. You know between now and the next four weeks something will be out, and you just have to keep your fingers crossed. 

It would be wonderful to win the Champion Hurdle for Michael Buckley we have been together a long time and we have had many highs and lows and a lot of good horse but also some horrible luck on the way. I thought Spirit Son was going to be a world beater and he sadly died from an accident while he was on holiday, so various things have gone right and wrong. We’ve had some wonderful times with the likes of Finian's Rainbow and Brain Power, but this is an extraordinary animal. His greatest asset is his head – not that it’s the prettiest – but his whole mind game is brilliant. Not even you guys could frighten him! You could go three miles with him as you just put him to sleep and wake until it is the right moment. Nico knows where the button is and when to press it and it works. It really is as simple as that.

He could eventually go over fences and when you look back to win Altior won the Supreme and Buveur D’Air was third and we sat down and thought what to do and I sat down with Pat Hughes and said you will win the Champion Hurdle if you stay over hurdles but it will be too late to go chasing with him another year. We schooled him over fences and there was no doubt he was a chaser. At the same time Buveur D’Air went chasing and he didn’t find it easy - he was hurdling fences and that’s all it takes. We switched it around and put Buveur D’Air over hurdles and he wins two Champion Hurdles. 

Constitution Hill you can go chasing you can go two and a half miles and why wouldn’t you go three - you can go as far as you like. We will see and you would like to think that if everything went right you would go from Cheltenham to Aintree.

Constitution Hill, First Street and Epatante are still in the Champion and First Street goes to Wincanton on Saturday. He had 12st in the Betfair Hurdle and the Kingwell would be a nice race. He would have to win there very impressively but what else is there to go for? I should put him in the County, but we will see.

Buzz is in good form and going well. I’m not going to get a run into him before the Stayers’ Hurdle. Reggy rides him every day and he worked very well on Saturday. He has schooled and he had a horrible injury but that is not so say it’s impossible. He would have to have a racecourse gallop and I would like to do it on grass if I can do. He fractured his pelvis, and it was horrible but a lot of people have been involved and he went and did some dressage to try and build it up. You can see him he is very lopsided and very dropped on one side, but he worked beautifully. I would have thought Aintree might have been the sensible route, but you never know. To get him back would be an amazing thing on its own and we wouldn’t do it unless he was 110% it wouldn’t be fair on him.

He goes to Ascot and after that, ask Matt Chapman! He tells me I’m a plonker. I’ve nothing for the Champion Chase, unless Matt Chapman is right and I’m a complete so and so for not entering Shishkin. We’ll find that out on Saturday. He maybe should have been in the Queen Mother, but Shishkin has been working like a horse that needs further for me and I hope I am right otherwise I will be doing a lot more supplementing! I would have thought the Ryanair and if he doesn’t stay two and a half, I’m in a right pickle. I’m hoping that they are watering at Ascot but if it was that quick, he would have to go straight to Cheltenham. I hope it won’t be.

We don’t know at the moment, and she will run in the Champion or the Mares’ Hurdle over two and a half. We will keep an eye on the weather, and it feels as though we are here a bit earlier than usual - we are a week earlier! It’s four weeks to go which is a very long time away and a week is a long time in a horse’s life. She was very good the other day at Doncaster, and we will wait and see how things are going. She did prove that she stayed two and a half at Aintree and it was great to see her win like that the other day. I know she beat nothing, but she showed how good Constitution Hill is as she can still come out and beat her own playmates as easy as that. I thought she was superb and she jumped beautifully.

There is a question with Marie’s Rock as it is certainly possible she could move up and run in the Stayers’. Tom Palin and I have discussed and will discuss a lot more there won’t be a decision in the near future. You have Gordon’s horse who has impressed, and dear old Paisley Park while Champ is going to Aintree - they are not bad but there isn’t a standout. In the Mares’ Hurdle you have Epatante, Honeysuckle and we might even have Theatre Glory so there is a bit to be said about at least considering the Stayers’ and the ground may have a fair bit to do with the decision. 

Theatre Glory would want good ground but would have to be supplemented as would Epatante. You can take it they are intended runners and Epatante should be treated as an intended runner. I know Marie’s Rock hasn’t run over three miles, but she won the Relkeel Hurdle on New Year’s Day, and she stayed on very well both times and flies up the Hill. I was very impressed, and she is fresh and well, and all things are ready for go.

I would be in favour of the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle and she ought to run in the Mares’. She was impressive at Exeter on Sunday and Paul, and I will talk nearer the time. She is in the Supreme, but the Mares’ race would be a good chance of providing us with a winner. I do like winning the Supreme as the pressure is off before you begin but we don’t have anything else for the race, but I don’t think it’s the right thing to do personally. If there was forfeit stage, I would have left Luccia in but when you have had the likes of Altior and Shishkins I really was confident and in Altior’s year they were going ‘Min, Min, Min’ but I was very confident Altior would win, and you have to take it all in context. 

She did this extraordinary thing last year and knocked a stifle and used to do it nearly every day. Unfortunately, she fell over in her box and finished up with both legs stretched splayed and couldn’t get up and the Vet had put the catheter in her neck and I had to ring the owner and tell him. I thought we have got to do something and there is a tendon that goes down her leg and we literally had to do it and they cut the tendon and it released the whole thing. We didn’t know if she would jump but she has an amazing constitution.

She will end up in the Mares’ Novices’ definitely. She is in good form and was second in it last year. She is still a novice and how exactly I have done that I have no idea. Last time went wrong but she is doing plenty.

He could run at Ascot this weekend and we will see how he goes and then think of the Ballymore.

I would take the positives out of Saturday and not the negatives. As you saw they turned down the back straight and Aidan just got into a nice rhythm and a roll and just got into not going any quicker. I don’t think Aidan was asleep, but the horse was just relaxed in his own mind and Calico just swooped and it just caught him unaware. The next thing we were four lengths down, but I think it would have done him good and he had a real good blow like he has never done before. It wasn’t pretty to watch and pretty awful from where I was watching as it frightened the living daylights out of me but eventually, he’s quickened up and won nicely which he was entitled to do. 

On his previous performances he would have won easily but I wanted a lead and that is the first time he has ever jumped a fence behind. I spoke to JP, and we believe it was a wakeup call for him. He had a real good blow and he looked like he was ready to go to the show ring not the Racecourse. I think he needed it much more than we anticipated. They will go a good gallop in the Arkle Challenge Trophy, and he is sharp and he’s quick and a good jumper. He’s back and he’s fine and he looks like he wants a bit more work done. He is up there more with my other winners of the Arkle and he is good. I’m sure he will go further in time.

He is entered in the Brown Advisory and the Turners Novices’ and he would go to Cheltenham - why not? I think there is a bit of improvement to come, and he had a really good blow. I thought he had won the race and I don’t think Gerri Colombe outstayed him I just think there’s a little more to come. It looks quite a good division, but he deserves to take his chance. He jumps well and he loves to be up there.

Mister Coffey will go for the National Hunt Chase and Derek will ride again. I was disappointed he got beat at Warwick, but we wanted to make the running and we had a false start and then a standing start and the trouble was he stayed standing. He then got caught horribly wide the whole way around. Personally, I think he should have won but we got a run into him, and he ran a good race, and the National Hunt Chase is what we have been aiming at all along.

He is one of five we have in the Pertemps and I’m going to do a Willie Mullins! He also in the Coral Cup and I wouldn’t be sure he would get three miles at Cheltenham.

He is another of the Pertemps Final contenders. He has been put up 7lb for his Cheltenham win but never runs a bad race.

He was good over three miles and he would be more a Kim Muir horse.

Fantastic Lady will be in the Plate, and she will be there as will Bold Endeavour.

He will be entered in the County Hurdle and could go there but he hasn’t been performing as well as we would have expected.

He would be one for the Pertemps Final, but I don’t think he will get in off his mark. He ran a very nice race at Huntingdon last time.

Steal A March it would be nice for The King to have a runner and he could go for the Pertemps. He won a qualifier at Wincanton on Boxing Day and has been a model of consistency.

We have plenty in the Pertemps and he would be one of them. The handicaps don’t close for another week, but I have started working on them and there will be something. I was pleased with him at Exeter on Sunday.