The Cheltenham Festival, scheduled for Mar. 10-13, will allow the world's finest horses, jockeys, owners and trainers battle it out for the highest racing honors. On Tuesday, Nicky Henderson, the most successful trainer in the event's history, previewed the 30 horses he will send to this year's meeting.
In his own words, below is a synopsis for three of the festival's favorites. A complete preview can be found via the Guardian.
Sprinter Sacre
"We're as optimistic and hopeful as we can be that he's going to be somewhere near his best," Henderson said. "He's certainly going to be competitive and we hope that he's going to be good enough. He was all class and show and quality at Cheltenham, and then Aintree and Punchestown [in the spring of 2013] and the whole thing got very big, and quite rightly."
"It was a spectacular time and it was moving really that a horse can get to such a level and it's always sad when they can't carry it on," he added. "Last year was definitely a mega-blip."
Whisper
"The original plan was to go novice chasing, but Whisper had a tough time last back end," Henderson said. "Maybe it just got to him a little bit. He jumped all right at Exeter, but there was no point going on doing that. I think he's coming to himself and we'll see what happens tomorrow."
Bobs Worth
"Things have gone according to plan," Henderson said. "He did get a bit sick coming back from Ireland, but we've had everything right now for a good three weeks. If the ground isn't too bad, the plan is to go to Newbury on Sunday [for a racecourse gallop] because for him, grass and a galloping track would be more useful for him than Kempton."
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