Nicky Henderson: “Buveur D’Air is back at Seven Barrows”

WE were delighted to welcome Buveur D’Air back to Seven Barrows yesterday morning and the team at Martinstown have done a tremendous job because he looks absolutely fantastic and it’s lovely to see his familiar face looking out over the stable door again.

He’s been doing plenty of trotting on the grass at JP’s place where they made him a special shoe to help through this current stage and the head lads in Ireland have kept us well up to date with his progress by sending pictures and videos throughout his time there, but he looks fabulous and is now ready to step up his training to the next level. We certainly won’t be rushing him and it will be a very steady process but Hannah knows him better than any of us so we’ll take it step by step and gradually build him back up towards attempting to win a third Unibet Champion Hurdle.

I must admit I haven’t told him about Epatante yet because when he disappeared from the scene nobody had even heard of her, she hadn’t even won the Christmas Hurdle! but I imagine the plan for her would be up to Newcastle for the Fighting Fifth followed by Kempton on Boxing Day, whereas Buveur D’Air is obviously much further behind than the rest of the squad and will take a lot more time so won’t be out in the early part of the season and barring mishap we’d be look at races like the Unibet International at Cheltenham and then we’ll probably be getting headaches trying to keep them both apart but it’s a nice problem to have, albeit all a long way away and we will take each day as it comes.