NICKY Henderson is the most successful British trainer in the Cheltenham Festival’s history, with 73 victories to his name.

The master of Seven Barrows is as hungry as ever, as he bids to land a record-extending 10th Unibet Champion Hurdle, exactly 40 years after winning it for the first time.

Despite turning 75 this year, Henderson, speaking at a media morning organised by The Jockey Club and Cheltenham Racecourse to run the rule over his leading Cheltenham Festival contenders, said: “We’re very lucky that we’ve got some very, very high-class horses and you’re hardly going anywhere. You’ve got to have fresh blood coming in. They can’t all be stars, but the more you have to play with, the more chance you’ve got of finding the good ones.

“We’d always settle for one winner, but if you get one winner on the first day, you sort of get the bit between your teeth. We found out how important that one win is last year, because none is horrendous. You take nothing for granted.”

Having won his first Unibet Champion Hurdle in 1985 with See You Then, Henderson hopes his yard’s flag bearer, Constitution Hill, will triumph in what could be a vintage renewal of the race, if Willie Mullins’ State Man and Lossiemouth and Gordon Elliott’s Brighterdaysahead all line up on March 11th.

Henderson said: “There are high-class horses in any year. You could say it’s a very strong year. You never get an easy one, do you? Binocular was very, very good and so was Buveur D’Air. Punjabi probably wasn’t one of the greatest ones, but there have been a lot of very good horses over the years.”

Star of the team

Constitution Hill remains the star of the team, heading back to the Festival after being ruled out around this time last year. The star hurdler made it 10 wins in a row last time out at Cheltenham.

Asked about the reception he received back in the winner’s enclosure after that victory on January 25th, Henderson said: “I think it shows National Hunt racing in a great light and, to be fair, the crowd at Kempton were fantastic as well. I think they were pleased to see him back – weren’t we all? It’s a very, very special thing. It’s just great for National Hunt racing. People do love these horses and it shows that a ‘boring’ five-horse race with a 1/12 shot – to some people it’s a tragedy, but for most people, it was something fantastic.

It means a lot to us that people love him. We just look after him, we’re the curator of something that is a bit special and so’s the other fella (Jonbon) and it’s just great that people do like them.

Asked if the job of training racehorses gets easier or more difficult over time, Henderson cited another of his leading lights, Sir Gino, as an example of how tough it can be.

Sir Gino had been the odds-on favourite for next month’s Arkle, but has now been ruled out after an infection following a minor leg injury sustained on the gallops.

Henderson explained: “You know it gets harder. You only have to look at last week – you just know that that’s round everybody’s corner. Everybody will tell you the same thing. You’re going to get hit and, unfortunately, we got hit last week.

“He’s still in the clinic and he’ll be there for another week anyway. I think they’re hoping that, if he stays the same for a week, then we might be starting to get out of the woods, but he’s still got a way to go yet.

“The signs are positive, because he’s stable. He’s very happy. They’ve just got to get this bug under control and it’s a sort of superbug that gets into them. It’s bizarre and very, very rare and it can be dangerous.”

But now it’s all set for no further problems for his Cheltenham string. His 73 wins at the Cheltenham Festival (second only to Willie Mullins) includes a record nine Unibet Champion Hurdles and a pair of Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cups.

Constitution Hill

8yo Blue Bresil - Queen Of The Stage

Everything’s been good. It didn’t start that well, in that we had to miss the Fighting Fifth, but on the other hand, we had supersubs out there, so he came in at Christmas and he’s been terrific.

I think we went into Kempton with half a mind that he could easily get beaten and, if he did, we felt that if we get beaten, we’ll be alright in March and now we’ll probably find it’ll be the other way round and we won’t be alright in March!

He was good at Kempton. I wasn’t that fussed that day to be honest with you, but jeepers creepers, Cheltenham was something else. That day absolutely did me in, because it was sort of a no-win situation, wasn’t it?

Because unless he did something, which he did do and kept everybody on their toes anyway by trying to destroy a hurdle… that was the only result that was really any good to us. It does put the pressure on a bit, but he was great and he enjoyed himself.

We walked away from Kempton certainly not expecting to run him again before March and had no intention of it. “But we just came back and, a week later, he was so well in himself and bright and he looked fantastic. So, I did the opposite – I’d said ‘no we won’t’ and all of a sudden, I’m the one saying ‘come on then - let’s go again’ and that surprised everybody, I suspect! I hope he’s going to be absolutely spot on in March. We’ve got three weeks tomorrow.

His work’s the same. I suspect Nico will have a sit on him this week, just to see where he is and how he feels, but I suppose he’d better jump a hurdle at some stage, just to eliminate that.

You’d hardly want to go in (to the Unibet Champion Hurdle) with the last hurdle he jumped being that one (at Cheltenham in January).

The one good thing is that he can travel off any pace. That pace that Lossiemouth found difficult at Kempton was of no worry to him. He can go that fast. He can travel at a very, very high speed. He has got bags of speed.

I’m not saying they can go as fast as they like, as that’s just sounding contemptuous. They will go hard, but I think his weapon is that he can hold that.

He explained: “The Willie Mullins Racing Festival (!) didn’t tell us everything, because they were going very hard that day those two (State Man and Lossiemouth), and it would have been fascinating to know what the end-product would have been.

“It’s left more questions than answers, obviously, because one of them was going to get beaten. Where would that have left the market and the whole world – what would everybody have been thinking?”

Asked what Brighterdaysahead could bring to the race, he added: “You’re certainly going to get the pace. The gallop will be on, one would imagine. It’s what she’s always done. It will be fascinating, but we won’t have to worry about getting run away with halfway up the hill, will we? It will be very, very interesting. She’s a very good mare, they’re both very good mares and, and so is State Man. It’s a good, solid Champion Hurdle.”

Jonbon

9yo b g Walk In The Park - Star Face

Jonbon’s an entertaining character. They’re so different. One is the most laidback person you’ll ever come across and the other is a complete fusspot and can’t stand still for two minutes. The other horse (Constitution Hill) would stand still for two days.

I think he did in the end at Ascot (get the recognition he deserves). It did seem that everyone was very good to him that day. It’s taken a while though, when you think that he’s won eight or nine Grade 1s.

Jonbon’s always been the same. He did nothing wrong last year, apart from make one mistake, in the Clarence House when it was run at Cheltenham.

It was the only thing he did wrong, apart from the fact that he couldn’t turn up at Cheltenham and that was a pity.

I suppose that’s why he’s got forgotten a little bit, because he wasn’t there last year and, in all fairness, the Champion Chase as it turned out, wasn’t exactly an epic was it?

If he (Jonbon) had been there, you’d have to say it might not have been the hardest race he’d ever had. But he wasn’t there, so I suppose you’ve got to win the Champion Chase and then you can be a champion and he deserves to.

Jango Baie

5yo b g Tiger Groom - Tenessee

We’re very lucky to have super-subs. That (the Arkle) would be our line of thinking at the moment. Our original thought was that he’s probably a two and a half mile horse and the obvious thing would be for him to come down rather than go up.

You go up and I’m sure he’d stay three miles, that’s the dilemma. They took the two and a half mile race away just the year I want it in there, but on the other hand, would Ronnie’s (Bartlett) horse, Ballyburn, stay at two and a half if the two and a half was still there? Or would he go to three anyway? He goes a good gallop anyway.

I thought it was really good. [short-head defeat in the Virgin Bet Scilly Isles Chase at Sandown Park last time out], a short head’s a short head and that was in horrible ground.

I thought he did great, he jumped beautifully. He’s accurate like that and he’s got pace on better ground.

We were thinking two and a half then going up to three, but then Sir Gino’s left the door open from our point of view anyway. So, I think that’s the way we would be thinking.

Palladium

4yo Gleneagles - Path Wind

Lulamba

4yo g Nirvana Du Berlais - Ejland

Lulamba is terribly well and would have to have a racecourse gallop and the other fella is just good at what he does.

There are two things about the Huntingdon race [Palladium won]. One is that the form has already turned out to be red hot and second, the time was fantastic. He was six seconds faster than the other division. Lulamba looks very good. He’s very laidback and he has a very good attitude to it. But he has only had two runs in his life.

And the other horse, just the way he’s been working and everything and schooling, does he really need to? He’s done a mountain of racing. I think he might be better where he is, but I don’t know, we’ll see.

Lulamba could jump anyway, because he’d already run over hurdles, he’s very good. Palladium was always good. With colts, it’s not the easiest thing you’ll ever do, but they either do or they don’t.

He’s got a fantastic temperament and that makes it very, very easy. He went away and did bit of loose schooling to start with, which we nearly always do with horses coming off the flat and he enjoyed that.

He’s been terrific all the way through. He’s a very high-class horse and a beautiful looking horse too. You’d take him anywhere and he’d win a prize.

Lulamba is a very laidback horse at home. He doesn’t behave like a baby, but he’s very raw still.

He’s a big scopey horse and you can easily see that jumping a fence next year like we’ve switched Sir Gino, but that’s a long, long, long way away and it depends what’s going on in the world then.

You can easily see him jumping a fence, but I don’t think Palladium will be jumping fences. I think he’ll be winning the Melbourne Cup.

Lucky Place

6yo Pastorius - Luckystar Du Frene

Lucky Place is high up on my list, very high. He was meant to go novice chasing - he was all schooled up and ready to go and jumped beautifully.

But at the time, we had a whole string of horses in a similar position and it was a question of trying to find races for all of them.

He is a very likeable, uncomplicated and straightforward horse.

He is a nice horse with a great attitude and temperament. His stamina will be on trial at Cheltenham (Stayers Hurdle), but the form of his win in the Ascot Hurdle has worked out well.

We will trust that he stays and we’ll find out on the day. He is in really good order and it looks an open race.