“HE’S some dude,” says Nicky Henderson’s PA Carolyn Harty benevolently. She is not, we should clarify, talking about her boss, although the Sage of Seven Barrows has his own unique qualities.

It is a sunny day in Lambourn and we are looking over the stable door at Altior, on the cusp of setting a new world record for consecutive wins in the National Hunt sphere at Sandown today, but at this moment, basking in complete disinterest at anything going on outside his immediate realm.

Patricia Pugh’s nine-year-old is in resting mode. The faintest of nods in our direction to acknowledge our existence tells us he is not asleep.

Just a few doors down stands an equally-relaxed Buveur D’Air, the dual Champion Hurdle winner on target for a renewal of Aintree rivalries with Supasundae at Punchestown on Friday.

Fusil Raffles is more animated. Playful, like a puppy. Nudging and nuzzling, nothing but fun on his mind.

The scar on his left hind leg is an ugly reminder of the cut suffered when winning by nine lengths on his British debut last February. Fully recovered, he will be a very interesting challenger for four-year-old honours next Saturday.

The main yard is where the Grade 1 operators are housed but just like humans, horses are individuals.

Sprinter Sacre hated it here and made it obvious. So he was relocated to less salubrious quarters further back and was much happier.

Trainers go about their business in varying ways, due to experience and facilities.

What never changes though is the absolute imperative of listening to what the horses are communicating. Few are better listeners than Nicky Henderson.

***

A GOOD TALKER

Fortunately, he is a good talker too and while the grey squirrel foraging on the other side of the big bay window is a momentary distraction, you are quickly drawn in.

The eldest son of Major Johnny Henderson, aide-de-camp to Field Marshal Montgomery before becoming a stockbroker, Nicholas John went to Eton and was earmarked to follow his father into the financial world. Henderson Snr had also been heavily involved in organising the Jockey Club finances however, and was central to establishing the Racecourse Holdings Trust. As a result, he was able to purchase Cheltenham and secure its future. Nicky took to racing more readily than his intended profession.

“I was never meant to do this at all,” he says with that familiar roguish grin. “I was meant to go to the City in London and be a boring old stockbroker. And I did, and that’s what my father expected me to do really. But he was great… I couldn’t sit behind a desk all my life. So I escaped from London. After that, I was lucky Fred Winter came along. I used to go and ride out there a lot. I was a bad amateur. I had five years there and rode some very good horses.”

He was 28 when he went out on his own.

“When I packed up at Fred’s he was champion trainer with around 48 horses. Now we are all living on 150 so it’s a completely different world. But it was still fiercely competitive. There was only a wall in between Fred and Fulke Walwyn. There were great mates but had a fierce rivalry. It was like Paul Nicholls living the other side of that hedge, and we are trying to beat them.”

Henderson began in 1978 at Windsor House, where Peter Walwyn started. Dukery, bought by Ron Scott from Mick O’Toole six weeks earlier, was the first winner from just a third runner. See You Then is cemented in history, a three-in-a-row victor (1985-87) in the Champion Hurdle, a race his trainer has won more times than anyone else (seven). Only Willie Mullins has more Cheltenham Festival triumphs, by one, 65-64.

“See You Then was the horse that made things happen really. He changed life. He was a great horse.”

Another significant development was Seven Barrows coming on the market, Peter Walwyn looking to downsize and return to Windsor House. Henderson moved in in 1992.

“That was the greatest break really. It took a couple of years to sort yourself out here because you had to learn to use different gallops and a whole completely different ball game. But it’s an amazing place. You have got all of your own facilities. You can do whatever you like, when you like. We have a mile-and-a-half grass gallop. We have everything. I never leave the place.”

By then, he had been a two-time champion trainer (1986-87). It took another 26 years to add the third of his five titles, though he was a constant in the higher echelons and always had quality, as Martin Pipe became the dominant force in terms of numbers. It was 2009 before he registered 100 winners and he has only missed out on the century once since.

IRISH CONNECTION<

A close relationship with agent David Minton has been integral to the Henderson story. It was a relationship established through another with Johnny Harrington, the late husband of trainer Jessica Harrington.

“In those days all the horses were in Ireland and everything was bought there. The point-to-points were good but the bumpers were what you were watching… Johnny Harrington was the director of the CBA (Curragh Bloodstock Agency), and he became a great friend. I would go out there and he would take me around. Anthony Stroud was working for him at the same time and Minty came in at the same time. Minty and I have been doing it together ever since.

“France came into it when Minty set up Highflyer with Anthony Bromley. Anthony didn’t pioneer it, because lots of people had been to France, but he was certainly one of the first guys to go back into it in a really big way. We started buying a huge number of horses in France. They were viable in those times, so were Irish point to pointers. Nowadays you need an arm and a leg to get near them.”

Is that sustainable?

“You get a good horse winning a point-to-point, or hear of a horse winning an Auteuil hurdle or something like that, they are nearly always on the market. There are three or four or five maidens in Ireland every Sunday. You get a call on Sunday nights, ‘I saw something at wherever and you have got to buy it.’ If you haven’t bought it by lunchtime on Monday somebody else has. Now everybody comes to the boutique sales we have. They would probably rather put them in the ring and let them make what they will make.

“The prices, I have to admit are pretty scary. I am very lucky that I have got various guys who are prepared to play in this game. We get some lovely horses.”

He has always invested strongly in stores as well. “I would rather buy a new car and it is a quarter of the price. It is the only time where a new car is a quarter of the price of an old car.”

He recalls a different era, when he stayed with John and ‘Chich’ Fowler for the Derby Sale, in the Ballsbridge times before the relocation to Fairyhouse. One future Champion Chaser comes to mind.

“We bought some extraordinary horses and the one that sticks out is Remittance Man. I bought this funny little wirey brute. He was narrow and wirey but some athlete. He came back to Windsor and he was crazy. He walked his box like nothing you will ever see in your life. I should have sent him back. Every rule in the book and common sense said, ‘Return this bleeding thing. It will drive you mad.’ I don’t know why I didn’t, pure luck made me say, ‘I love him. I will keep him.’”

Companionship in the initial form of a pregnant goat bought from his best friend and neighbour Barry Hills, and then sheep from another neighbour’s flock that were named Allan Lamb (after the England cricketer) and Ridley Lamb (the jockey), worked the oracle. The naming party gave up trying to be clever the third year but Nobby hit it off with Remittance Man like no other.

“That went well for a year and then at the end, we chucked Nobby back in with his mates at home as usual. The next year, we got another sheep out of the field. Remittance Man arrived back, took one look at the sheep and picked it up and chucked it over the door. Out it came, fur flying everywhere. He wouldn’t have it at all so I had to get Nobby back, who is in a field with 400! We put a horse in the field, 399 went one way and one came out. Nobby came out to say hello. Then they lived together for the next five or six years. Extraordinary.”

***

Patricia Pugh and Nicky Henderson after Altior won the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham (Photo carolinenorris.ie)

UPS AND DOWNS

It hasn’t all been plain sailing. Henderson has almost always enjoyed a positive relationship with the media but that took a hit in November 2017, when he announced via his Unibet blog that Altior would not take his place in the Tingle Creek Chase. Three days earlier, in a television interview, he had reported his star turn to be on target. However, in his statement announcing Altior’s temporary spell on the sidelines to have a wind operation, he referred to having heard a noise on the Saturday, prior to saying all was well.

The subsequent reaction shook him and then enraged him. He was appalled at any implication he was involved in some form of skulduggery. He has heard noises emanate from many horses that went on to perform excellently and insists it just isn’t practical to provide a level of detail that might turn out to be misleading.

“I couldn’t believe it. I thought I’d played the straightest bat you could possibly play and yet one or two chose to see it differently. I think what they don’t like is the connection between trainers and bookmakers, and the fact that we’re launching news that way.

“On that occasion, there was a missing hour because Sophie and I had gone to Edinburgh. We were getting married in January. I had said to Bridget Hanbury, who’s a great friend of ours – they own Triermore Stud (in Meath) but they have a place in Scotland – ‘I need somebody to marry us.’ She says, ‘Leave it to me.’ She organised it but said, ‘You will have to go to Edinburgh to meet him.’ So we went and had to go to the Synod. It wasn’t the local vicar, it was the Archbishop of Scotland!

“I had spoken to the veterinary surgeon outside the Synod in a bus shelter. Geoff Lane had looked at him and he said that he thought they would have to do a wind op. So I knew that but Unibet didn’t know. I couldn’t say to the Archbishop of Scotland, ‘Hang on a minute, I just need to make a bit of an announcement to the world.’ So we had an hour in there.

“Then, I continued the operation in the bus shelter outside the Synod. That was to get hold of Pat Pugh to tell her, and then, to ring Brett (Williams) at Unibet, who writes my blog and he sends it out. I couldn’t do better than that and I couldn’t believe what some people said. They questioned me. I thought, ‘Crikey, all I’ve done over the years is try to be as open and honest as you possibly can be and this happens.’ They went ballistic.”

So there was nothing more he could have done?

“Well, there was. There was the morning I thought I heard him make a noise, so we got him scoped on the Tuesday. But if I reported every horse I thought might have made a noise, my blog would be 200 pages long, because I’d be doing something on every horse that ever galloped.

“‘So-and-so coughed twice this morning. I’d better tell them that in case he coughs four times tomorrow and I have to withdraw it the next day.’ It would make no sense whatsoever… You can’t afford not to be straight and honest, particularly because of the exchanges, which I think are lethal, I must admit. We try to do it right but the reaction to that by one or two was so disappointing.”

There has been more direct spiteful and vindictive commentary in recent years.

“If you asked me for my absolute pet hate in life, it’s social media.

“What people say on social media, that they would never say to you and I, face to face. Every now and then, thank God, people write nice things. But sadly, most of it is ... I think it’s sad.

“Emails are just as bad. People write you emails; you wouldn’t believe how many we get in the morning that are written in the middle of the night. You look at the time and you know. If it’s written at two o’clock in the morning there are a few bottles of wine involved.

“We have had a number traced since I reported it to the BHA, where I get a whole lot of unknown calls immediately after a race. I answered it once and I answered it twice, and it’s a guy saying ‘You crooked bastard, you stopped that fucking horse.’ I just turned it off and now I don’t answer unknown calls.

“I do get some very nice emails. But there are just a small number of people out there that don’t understand what we are trying to do.

“We’re trying to win races. That’s all I want to do, is win races, look after the horses, the people, everyone that works here. They are my family and very important to me. That’s all I want to do.

“And then enjoy it. We have lots of mates and we have lots of fun and we’ll have lots of fun next week.”

***

PUNCHESTOWN

He and Sophie will stay with JP McManus for two nights after arriving at Martinstown tomorrow, before decamping to Kildare where they will be based at Jessica Harrington’s Commonstown during Punchestown week.

The Henderson link with Ireland extends to jockeys. Mick Fitzgerald and Barry Geraghty were the two he was most closely associated with before Nico de Boinville. After an attempt at sharing another Irishman, Richard Dunwoody with David Nicholson didn’t really work out – “The Duke was a great mate. Very competitive. He became an even better mate when he retired!” – Henderson opted to mould his own talent.

“I heard there was a kid in the West Country who was doing really well.

“I remember interviewing him next door. I am not sure who interviewed who but if you know the way Mick talks, you know who was doing the talking. He was great and they were great days. I adored him. It was a bit like having a son really. You felt he was homegrown.

“Then he had that fall and one person who did well at Cheltenham and those other places was Barry. And I just thought, ‘Before I go and rush in and find another leading conditional and put him in the light, just let’s have a sit back and think and wait and see who crops up.’

“I asked Barry to come and do that and we had some great times. Barry was a great man to have. I am very, very fond of him.

“It was only because AP (McCoy) retired that Barry and I had to do something different. Nico is homebred.

“It was tough for him as it was with Mick in the first place. Dunwoody or (Peter) Scudamore sat in the weigh room, and I wanted to put Mick Fitzgerald on this horse. They hadn’t heard of Mick Fitzgerald… I would like to think Nico has now proved that he is as good as any of them out there.”

The sense of anticipation for the Punchestown “away game” next week is very evident. For this is a place close to his heart. Without prompting, and in the middle of discussing a different topic, he begins describing Sprinter Sacre’s visit in 2013. By the time he is finished, the 68-year-old has teared up considerably.

“The day I will never forget was when we brought Sprinter to Punchestown. I promised Richie Galway we would. You couldn’t believe that an English-trained horse bred in France, which is exactly what Ireland don’t want, could possibly have a reception like that. It was the most amazing day.

“When he came into the pre-parade ring where the saddling boxes are, it was jam-packed, you couldn’t move. Then he went into the paddock and they clapped him.

“‘Christ’, I thought, ‘just as well we have the ear plugs in.’

“It was the first day of the meeting and for four days everybody came up and said ‘Thank you very much.

“It was just quire extraordinary, I never seen anything like it except for when he came back to Cheltenham for the second Champion Chase but for Ireland to appreciate a horse like that was quite incredible. It was an amazing day.”

Meanwhile, listening to Des Scahill try to pronounce Quantitativeeasing as he won a bumper 10 years ago was “hysterical”.

When Nicky Henderson is around, conviviality will never be far away. And neither will champion racehorses.

PUNCHESTOWN TEAM

Nicky Henderson and Buveur D'Air (Photo PA)

Buveur D’Air

“I don’t think it was stamina beat him the last day. You could make excuses when Melon fell but I still say we weren’t good enough on the day. He ran a good race and went down fighting. He’s older now so we can afford to have a go. We’re not trying to protect a young champion.”

Fusil Raffles

“He’s good. Daryl (Jacob) came and rode him this morning. He was never a brilliant work horse at home. I wasn’t expecting what we saw at Kempton. Whether we’ll see what we saw at Kempton, I don’t know.”

Champagne Platinum

“Champagne Platinum had to miss Cheltenham through no fault of his own – he got a setback with a bad foot – so he deserves a crack at his Grade 1. He has won both his starts over hurdles and the intention is that he goes to Punchestown on Tuesday.”

Chantry House

“He’s one of JP’s who won his bumper at Warwick, having won his maiden point-to-point in December. Next week is the start of a new season, so if he wins his novice, he’s still a novice for the whole year.”

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