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Update on his plans for the upcoming season.
He seems a bit more forthcoming and sure on his plans for most horses for upcoming season.
Ballyburn back over hurdles – stayers route.
Kopek des Bordes and final Demand going over fences (and somehow Lulamba is fav for Arkle!)
No mention of Irancy, which i thought was strange as he must be either a leading arkle contender or a horse moving into the CH picture.
Wetting the appetite for the jumps, but very sobering that he has more graded horses than all of the british trainers combined and with something to spare.
Not much different on the flat where Aidan O’brien is likely to win the trainers championship, he has currently trained 27 winners over here with Andrew Balding in second who has nearly seven times more winners to his name.
The more I know the less I understand.
I’ve been following racing for 45 years and have never seen a satisfactory explanation of why the trainers’ title is decided on prize money, but the jockeys’ championship on the number of winners. 🤷♂️
Anyway, back to Willie: he has a fabulous team, as always, and some of the novice chasers look potentially top class. I have already backed Final Demand for the 2027 Gold Cup, so hold high hopes for him in particular.
Lossiemouth is in good shape and has come back good and strong. Our normal starting point is the Hatton’s Grace and she’s going to Cheltenham, all being well. That’s all I’ll commit to at this stage!
Translates to Mares Hurdle
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
The trainers championship is always a boring side note for me. Be chuffed if Nicky was to ever win it again but he is hugely down on Quantity and Quality, he’d need a miracle to crack the top 3 again.
I do wonder where he will go with Sir Gino this year. Wont run till after xmas. Surely not Champion Chase then, so i can only imagine he’d be campaigned as a champion hurdler but theres not much around between xmas and new year for g1 Hurdlers.
Realistically Willie could probably so for a clean sweep of British grade 1s if he wanted.
Sir Gino will undoubtedly follow the tried and trusted Henderson route of Game Spirit – Cheltenham, if he is fit to race. If he doesn’t make Newbury, my guess is that he’ll be roughed off for the season.
My biggest concern with Hendo is that the young talent doesn’t appear to be there. I haven’t checked it, but apparently he only had one bumper winner last season and that came at Plumpton.
Since Constitution Hill won the Supreme in 2022 Henderson has had one runner in the race and that was pulled up.
Nicky mentioned on Sunday that Sir Gino might start back in The Desert Orchid at Kempton although I’m not sure if he remembered that that race has been dumbed down into a handicap
You’d think with all this good ground that Henderson would have mountains of runners ….. sorry I can’t say that with a straight face , this will be a huge festival for the yard , the last 2 have been disasters , another and Skelton and the likes will be the go to people … Come on The New Lion !!
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