• Simonsig gives trainer his 41st Festival winner
• Une Artiste’s victory in Fred Winter completes four-timer
Nicky Henderson enjoyed what must surely rate as the most momentous day of his career here on Wednesday, breaking records at either end of the card. He became the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival when Simonsig won the second race and later became the first to have four winners on a single day at the Festival, thanks to Bobs Worth, Finian’s Rainbow and Une Artiste.
“It’s getting a bit ridiculous, really,” said Henderson, who was clearly moved, as he had been on Tuesday when Sprinter Sacre was his 40th winner at the meeting, equalling the long-standing mark set by Fulke Walwyn. Believing he had a chance of adding to that total, the trainer decided to mark the significance of the occasion by wearing an old tweed suit formerly belonging to his late father, Johnny, who is credited with saving the racecourse from development in the 1960s.
“Dad and Fred Winter were the two most important people in my life,” he said after Une Artiste had given him his first victory in the race named after Winter. “He was my mentor, boss, tutor and everything.”
Henderson also expressed his respect for Walwyn, who had been a childhood hero. While at school, he had a picture of Walwyn’s best horse, Mill House, on his bedroom wall. Later, while serving as Winter’s assistant, he worked in the neighbouring stable to Walwyn’s in Lambourn.
“It’s been a lot of years with a lot of lovely horses and when you’ve got horses like this, it’s probably not very difficult,” said the 61-year-old, who described himself as feeling “sort of embarrassed, really”. He appeared especially moved when, long after the traditional roar that greets those who enter the winner’s enclosure here, the crowd broke into spontaneous applause for him as he posed for pictures with Simonsig.
Early in his career, Henderson was forced to wait for Festival success, eventually getting off the mark in 1985, seven years after he first took out a licence, with See You Then in the Champion Hurdle. “We were little boys then,” he said.
It was in that era that he won his two champion trainer’s titles, the most recent coming in the 1986-87 season. He is now in serious contention for a third title, his haul of more than £340,000 on Wednesday leaving him around £150,000 behind Paul Nicholls with just over a month left in the season.
He may take the lead on Thursday if it goes anything like as well as the previous 24 hours. He sends another six horses to Cheltenham, including Riverside Theatre, favourite for the Ryanair, and Oscar Whisky, seen by many as a potent threat to the dominance of Big Buck’s in the World Hurdle. On Friday, he will saddle Long Run, favourite for the week’s biggest race, the Gold Cup.
“We’ll probably wake up and find it was a good dream,” Henderson said. “You’ve had a lot of great days in life but Cheltenham comes round once a year and, to everybody here, it is the four days of the year. It doesn’t get any better.
“It doesn’t happen without a lot of people doing an enormous amount of work. I only drive the ship, there’s a huge team at home.
“I was annoyed when State Benefit fell in the first race, because I thought he was going well. I thought, this is going to be a real pig of a day.”
Henderson was especially pleased that his successes were spread around four different owners and noted that two of them had had their patience tested in the buildup to the Festival. Michael Buckley, owner of Finian’s Rainbow, and Simon Munir, owner of Une Artiste, also owned strong contenders for the Champion Hurdle, Spirit Son and Grandouet respectively, both of which were prevented from running by recent injuries.
Bobs Worth could easily have joined them on the sidelines, as Henderson described the series of setbacks he had encountered in training him this winter. “I never thought he would end up here,” he said.
The horse required a breathing operation after a poor effort behind Grands Crus at Kempton’s Christmas meeting and reacted so badly to it that he was almost withdrawn from his next race at Ascot, six weeks later. “He looked awful,” Henderson said, adding that Wednesday morning had been the first time all winter that Bobs Worth’s coat showed him to be in peak condition.
Now the horse is a top price of 12-1 for next year’s Gold Cup, in which Henderson has three of the top four in the betting. He also has the top two in the market for next year’s Champion Chase, Finian’s Rainbow being seen as the main challenger to Sprinter Sacre. Simonsig is just 4-1 for next year’s Arkle.
