Nicky Henderson: “This looks a great opportunity to get Epatante’s head in front”

AS many of you know I’m not the biggest fan of social media but I must admit I have been completely overwhelmed by the response we’ve received about Altior and it’s the first time it has really given me faith in the human world, it really is amazing, and I would like to thank you once again for all of your support.

There is no significant change to Altior’s condition from yesterday other than the fact that he is now allowed a few nibbles of hay and hopefully today he will be able to have a little more natural substances rather than drip feed which is obviously going to test his system.

I went to see him yesterday and was really happy to see how much brighter and perkier he was, which is a big positive, and we hope he can continue improving but he still has a long way to go and we mustn’t get complacent.

I went to see Altior last night and was really happy to see how much perkier he was. There's still a long, long way to go for him and we mustn't get complacent but I would like to thank you all for your continued support! pic.twitter.com/W6HELXeQ6Z

— Nicky Henderson (@sevenbarrows) January 27, 2023

CHELTENHAM

1:50

Caribean Boy (James Bowen)

He ran well on his first start of the season at Chepstow last month but Daryl felt he may benefit from a wind op so we’ve tinkered with that and I think a stiff two and a half around here will really suit. He’s still plenty high enough in the weights but is in good form at home and jumped nicely on our Canter Carpet schooling strip earlier this week. We have a few things going for us and I think he could be quite up for this.

 

2:25

Dusart (James Bowen)

We gave him a run over hurdles last time to blow the cobwebs away and sort of wake the body up a little bit and he will have improved a lot for that outing. I hadn’t been that happy with him earlier on in the season but he’s really turned a corner now and I’m much happier. There’s not much between him and Ruth Jefferson’s horse (Sounds Russian) on their Ayr running last April, in fact I think we might be a couple of pounds even more better off but this is a very good race. He’s a lovely big horse with plenty of scope; his schooling has been excellent and he’s showing us some good signals. The Scottish Grand National is where we’d like to end up so I’ll be happy if he can run a nice race, enjoy himself and then we can start building up towards the spring.

 

DONCASTER

2:05

Epatante (Nico de Boinville)

I must admit this is not plan A, B, C or even Z but it’s where we’ve ended up and after Haydock was off last week, she now heads to Doncaster to tackle what looks like a pretty good opportunity to get her head back in front. That is my main objective, to give her some confidence after bumping into a certain Constitution Hill on her last two runs, and the ground should be lovely.

 

3:15

Mister Coffey (Nico de Boinville)

He’s hit the cross bar a few times now, and it was a similar story at Chepstow last time, but he would have needed that run and he’ll be much sharper here. We’ve had to take him out on numerous occasions due to the ground being too quick, but it should be fine up there and he’s a horse with plenty of talent who we still hope will reach the heights we anticipate.

 

UTTOXETER

2:32

Rathmacknee (Sean O’Briain)

Again, this was not the original plan but he was forced to miss Lingfield last week so we’ve ended up here and it looks like the ground will be pretty good which is what he wants. Everything went wrong very early in in the Lanzarote Hurdle when he got caught in a melee of horses, so he was quite rightly pulled up after going about a mile. Sean is a very able rider and is good value for his 10lbs claim so I would be quite optimistic that he can go very well.