Nicky Henderson Stable Visit

It was great to catch up with loads of the syndicate owners this week, we had over 20 at Nicky Henderson’s yard this week. The horses warmed up in the covered ring and then headed out to the large sand oval gallop and did a few laps of low intensity work. Both horses looked very relaxed doing that. 

Gran Luna has had the one schooling session this summer which surprised me as her jumping isn’t the best, but Nicky (and Charlie) thought other horses needed it more. She looks great and has certainly grown over the summer. The plan is to continue in novice hurdling as there is unfinished business and then hopefully chasing before the season is out. Nicky said she had a disappointing season last year given the high hopes he had for her, but he said she has every chance of bouncing back this season. She’ll run on ground up to ‘good’ over 2 to 2 m 4f.  Being a mare there is obvious value if she can pick up some black type along the way. 

Surrey Quest looks a proper racehorse. He’s now taller than Gran Luna (and she’s not small) and has really filled out in all the right places. His attitude is fantastic and Nicky called him ‘bomb proof’ whilst Charlie mentioned that last year he was a baby, very excitable, whereas this season he has his head down and loves working. He’s been put through his paces on the all weather so he does do a lot more high intensity work. The plan for this season is straight to novice hurdling as he’s a good jumper so should have no issues there. He does need cut in the ground, so at worse the softer side of good for him. He’ll start at 2 miles but being a Milan he’ll probably need at least 2.5 miles. The yard thinks he’s going to make a very good handicapper so fingers crossed. Both horses will be ready to run mid October, 4-5 weeks time as long as the rain has come by then.

Nicky gave his own thoughts on the season ahead in this video !