Nicky Henderson has defended his decision not to run Altior in the Betfair Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown on Saturday due to ground conditions.

In a 10-minute interview on Racing TV, the trainer said he acted in the best interests of the horse by withdrawing him from Saturday's race. The official going on the chase course was soft but Henderson said it was heavy in his opinion.

The son of High Chaparral beat the popular Un De Sceaux in the Grade 1 contest two years ago, before going on to successfully defend his crown in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham and win a third Celebration Chase at Sandown to cap another flawless campaign.

Last season was not so smooth, however, with Altior suffering a first defeat in 20 starts over jumps at the hands of Cyrname in an attritional affair at Ascot – which put paid to ambitions of a step up to three miles for the King George VI Chase.

Henderson’s superstar chaser got back on the winning trail at Newbury in February – and while a late setback ruled out a Champion Chase hat-trick bid, the 10-year-old had since demonstrated to his trainer that he was back firing on all cylinders for his eagerly-awaited reappearance.

But after taking stock of the ground following racing at the Esher circuit on Friday, Henderson told the PA news agency: “It is with a heavy heart we have decided that Altior is not going to run. We simply don’t want to bottom him again given what happened last year.

“Everyone has seen how testing the ground was today and we’re not going to ask him to do it again.

“We’re very sorry to everyone who was looking forward to seeing him and it was a very tough decision for the Pughs, but we’ve got to do the best thing by the horse.

“It’s tough, and if there was any further rain forecast we may have left the decision until the morning, but it will be very holding ground and very hard work.

“We’ve been talking all night, we started off at 50-50 but we’re not even 90-10 now – he won’t run.

“Sadly, the horse could not be in better form so we’ll look at either Kempton or Ascot for him next.”