Sprinter Sacre and Nicky Henderson - Revisited

 Sprinter Sacre and Nicky Henderson - Revisited

Sprinter Sacre was a one in a million horse, what do you think made him so special?

He covered a lot of things. First of all, he was by a sire that wasn't particularly sexy but Sprinter was as good a looking horse, one of the best you'll ever see. Usually when they look like that - they're too pretty and aren't much good! He was the perfect model of a steeple chaser, he was a beautiful horse. I think he knew that, and he knew he was good. From the word go, he was a tremendous showman. He loved the atmosphere of the big days. That's what the big boys are like. We actually always put earplugs in him so he couldn't actually hear anything, which is slightly ironic as I've always said he loved the crowd and the recognition he got. But he couldn't hear anything because I stuck earplugs in him! If he didn't have them, he'd boil over and do too much. He was so good. Celia Marr looked after him when he had his heart issues and she said, this sort of thing often only happens to the good horses, simply just because their hearts are bigger with a lot more muscle mass. He was a great horse, with a very big heart. If you went around the sales measuring the size of horses hearts, you'd be set, but you can't!

From the day he arrived in the yard, did you know he was going to achieve what he did? What were your first impressions?

You can never guess that they would go on to achieve what he did, because that would have been outrageous. But he was always just a gorgeous looking horse. He was bought in a job lot. They bought 22 horses from a stud. They just bought the whole bloody lot. They sold most of them, but Raymond Mould kept the cream.

How was he on a day to day basis at home, did he know he was a star?

He was a very, very, very good work horse! We were lucky in a way, because very few horses would have been able to work with him but at the same time we had Simonsig, who was also a brilliant work horse and very good, so they worked together, because they're capable of that. Otherwise, you have to smash up other horses who really can't possibly go with him. At the same time, you have to be incredibly careful. If you get two very good horses and you let them go and gallop together, who were so good and so competitive, they could end up doing too much. You have to have very very good riders on them, who actually know what you can and can't do. I put a lot of trust in them, because if you let them do too much, they'd have killed each other! They really would have galloped each other into the ground and that's the last thing you'd want to do. You needed to let them compliment each other. You needed to do strong enough work to help them prepare for a race but not kill them. Otherwise they'd have been having a race twice a week, that would have been disastrous. It was a game of having to let them work together, but only quietly, as it would have been an utter burn up.

Was he the best horse you've ever trained?

Yes. I would say yes. It's very difficult to say over the years though. He certainly took us, and racing to a place we'd not seen in a very long time. This generation anyway. At the stage when he was at his very best, he was totally and utterly unbeatable, nothing at any stage or over the years would have beaten him. But then you had the bad year and a half.. then he came back. But he didn't come back to his absolute best. He tested everybody's emotions. Everybody said we should have retired him, but he came back and saved my bacon anyway! It had to work, and if it didn't I'd have looked stupid. He produced two of the greatest days we've ever seen really, at Cheltenham anyway.

Sprinter has had more than many memorable days racing, but what's your highlight?

The Queen Mother in the early days were spectacular, but they were nerve wracking because if he didn't win by 20L everyone was disappointed! So they were great days because they were remarkably easy, I knew all he had to do was jump round. The second best day was when we took him to Ireland. Ireland went ballistic for him. They absolutely adored him and it meant so much to them that we took him there. That day at Cheltenham was unreal. The best. When he came back to win another Queen Mother after all the issues with his heart. It was his last run on the track there. Certainly the people in the crowd will never forget it. I will never forget it.

Thanks to Nicky Henderson! Sprinter Sacre, was arguably the best horse we've ever seen, not much you can add to that really, Nicky says it all!

I hope you've enjoyed this addition, more Revisited will follow.