Racing: Henderson targets another Triumph

Top trainer is three-handed in Cheltenham Festival contest

At the Cheltenham Festival there used to be certainties: the ratchet pressure behind the hotel and taxi prices, the oiks buying and selling badges at the front gate and the internal mêlée even more dangerous than the scrums occupied by Martin Johnson. But then, 12 months ago, we were alerted to the fact that even the more unpleasant elements of the Festival could not be taken for granted.

In any normal season this year's Triumph Hurdle would be regarded as witches' work, but such is the anticipation for actual sport in the Cotswolds that this monstrous equine riddle is merely another trifle with which to wrestle.

The only certainty about the first race next Thursday is that winning punters will have a price about which to celebrate. Not so long ago, the Samaritans of the Big Three were offering 14-1 the field because neither they or anyone else had a clue about a potential victor.

Nicky Henderson, the only active trainer to have won the race three times, would, you might think, be the man to turn to. But even Henderson himself is confused. So far this season, he has had four individual favourites for the Triumph, none of which are now atop an ante-post market generally dominated by Martin Pipe's Londoner and Tempo D'Or from Guillaume Macaire's French stable.

Henderson is down to three for the event he has won with Katarino (1999), Alone Success (1987) and First Bout (1985). And he would not stake his daughters' lives on which of these will come pumping up the hill first in line next week.

The trainer produced his modern triumvirate yesterday at the Seven Barrows yard in Lambourn where he will celebrate his 10th anniversary in June.

Henderson himself did not look his 51 years. The trainer's livery included a yellow and white checked shirt you might have been tempted to put cutlery and condiments on, cream corduroys, navy blue jumper and red tie adorned with little bunnies. It's a country thing. By way of deference to the race sponsors, there was a great piece of yellow machinery on the front lawn and Henderson himself wore a cap bearing the initials JCB.

The most interesting horsepower, however, was introduced by Non So, who has now won his last two starts, at Folkestone and Fontwell. "An awful lot of them will give up before him," Henderson said. "He's tough, he gallops, he stays, he jumps and he would like it soft."

Then there was the larger figure of Lord Joshua, bought for 135,000 guineas last autumn. He bombed out on his debut at Kempton but looked a far different proposition at Newbury last Friday.

"I told his owner that we'd see something quite special at Kempton, but he went to the first there and made a complete horlicks of it," Henderson said. "That flummoxed him a bit and he never got into a rhythm. But at Newbury he was very professional and Mick [Fitzgerald, the jockey] said he would improve from that. He's a lovely horse with a great attitude and temperament."

Finally we witnessed the diminutive Volano, a winner at Sandown and a son of Pistolet Bleu. "He isn't very big, but he's a lovely, lovely horse," Henderson said. "He's a smashing fellow and a good jumper. I love the sire. I think Pistolet Bleu covered 350 mares last year. And then he died.

"My previous winners [of the Triumph] were all thorough stayers. You've got to stay. If you buy a miler off the Flat then you're praying to goodness you get the trip. If you buy a mile-and-six horse at least you know you're going to get the trip properly. You're going to go a right good gallop and you've got to get up the hill and for four-year-olds that means stamina."

And, finally, the clue. "Joshua did what he had to do on Friday," Henderson said, "and you would have to say he is the horse with the up-to-date form."

This morning at the yard, Bacchanal will school under the eye of the jumps guru Yogi Breisner, while his fellow Gold Cup aspirant Marlborough will also do a piece of work. Team Henderson think they have worked out why the former kept jumping right in victory in Newbury's Aon Chase. They are expecting a big run from the tough horse next Thursday and his race tactics will mean the Gold Cup is no lido for the best staying chasers in these islands.

"He was very lame that night when he came back [after the Aon] because he'd lost his off-hind shoe," Henderson said. "He ripped it from the toe and he actually had to go and have x-rays on the way home. He was limping and obviously bloody sore. He's back now and we know he's a mighty powerful galloper. We'll have to make sure of one thing, that the Gold Cup is not a five-furlong sprint."