He was a blazing shooting star over hurdles in that his Supreme year and Champion Hurdle year were the brightest of bright spots but that brightness has steadily waned as his fragility (both the horse and the trainers cotton wool approach) rose more to the surface post his Champion Hurdle year.
I am still of the opinon that Hendo has talked himself into believing that he can’t race on quicker ground even though there is absolutely no evidence to support that train of thought. The ground at Newbury will be quicker than anything he has raced on for sure but it will also have been heavily watered (at least up until they confirmed he wasn’t running) so I have no doubt it would have been perfectly safe jar free ground regardless of what Hendo thinks.
If this is the standard they are setting for ground conditions that they are prepared to race on then forget about a Melbourne Cup and potentially he could end up missing most of the English flat season (unless the weather intervenes). They might have to look elsewhere around Europe (France and Germany tend to have softer ground and some of the German G1 can be low on quality but then Hendo has never been know for his travelling horses so Buckley might have to insist).
I was hopeful that the switch to the flat could have led to a very good twilight to his career with plenty of viable races in the 12-16F range that he could be aimed at but his trainer seems hell bent on getting in his way of proving what a worthwhile exercise this switch could have been.