Nicky Henderson: “At the moment we are going to run in the Christy Chase at Ascot”

I HAVE been inundated with calls from so many people with regards to ALTIOR being entered in the Betfair Chase at Haydock so I would like to assure everyone that he is only in there as a reserve in case anything unfortunate, God forbid, should happen at Ascot on the same day. We are not running scared of Cyrname but if for some unusual reason the going came up very heavy at Ascot and it was good at Haydock then we would seriously have to think about it but at the moment we are going to run in the Christy Chase. We would be looking pretty silly if Ascot was abandoned or anything like that and we weren’t even entered at Haydock so we’ve got to keep our options open otherwise you can easily get caught out. It is purely a precautionary back up just in case. I am very happy with Altior and looking forward to getting him started for the season. MIGHT BITE is also engaged in the race but he is by no means certain to go as I rather like the idea of the Many Clouds Chase at Aintree on 7th December as a possibility for him.

CHAMP is set to make his chase debut at Newbury tomorrow and I am very pleased with him. Newbury is a beautiful track to start a novice chaser off and they’re good, proper, fences which he’ll have to respect but they are all very fair. We took him to Chepstow about ten days ago which was good and we’re going here with our fingers crossed. It looks a decent Beginners Chase so I don’t mind admitting I’m a little bit nervous!

Here’s the latest betting for the @Unibet Elite Hurdle at @WincantonRaces

https://t.co/gJunLPAorw pic.twitter.com/rHRE287wQ2

— Unibet Racing (@UnibetRacing) November 6, 2019

Briefly looking ahead to the weekend and we don’t have too many entries but have decided that FUSIL RAFFLES is an intended runner in the Unibet Elite Hurdle at Wincanton on Saturday as he’s really started to come forward in his work this week and this is an ideal starting point.