Nicky Henderson talks Constitution Hill, Jonbon, Sir Gino and new arrivals at Seven Barrows

Nicky Henderson was full of optimism as the Jump season got underway last week.

Discussing Seven Barrows’ top contenders, Henderson stated his belief that top level horses such as Constitution Hill can hit the ground running after a season disrupted by illness.

“He’s back to normal I hope,” Henderson said of the 2023 Champion Hurdle winner.

“He seems very well in himself and everybody’s very happy with him.

“Things just didn’t go his way last year.

“Everyone seems to have forgotten that he was as impressive as always in the Christmas Hurdle.

“He was seriously impressive at Kempton, but unfortunately everything conspired against him.

“Finally he got stopped by a bout of colic and he was in hospital for a week. He had a wretched time.

“He hasn’t come off the bridle yet, and that’s going to happen one day. He’s never actually had to get his hands dirty.

“The plan is to go back to Newcastle, if that goes well he’ll go back to Kempton and we’ll take it from there.”

Henderson also discussed top contenders Jonbon and Sir Gino ahead of the new campaign.

“Jonbon is easy, he’ll go down exactly the same route as last year.

“As Constitution Hill proved last year, these are animals, things go wrong and it's not easy.

“Unfortunately he just had one blip in the Clarence House and we chose not to run him at Cheltenham. It just wasn’t the right thing to do.

“We start in the Shloer Chase, then hopefully go onto the Tingle Creek Chase. Clarence House is the plan but we’ll have to see.”

“We haven’t mentioned Sir Gino yet, and he is as good as I’ve seen him for a long time,” Henderson emphasised.

The off-season has seen an array of new faces arrive at Seven Barrows, with Henderson expressing his high hopes for the new recruits.

“Palladium is here, he will see a hurdle at some stage but we have every intention of running him on the Flat next summer,” Henderson said of the German Derby winner purchased for £1.2m.

“There was another bidder who was going to run him in the Melbourne Cup, but he won’t do that I assure you.

“We’ll have a look at him over hurdles, but it might be that he doesn’t like them!

Khrisma and Kientzheim have arrived for J. P. McManus, and are expected to go novice hurdling, while Tradecraft looked promising in his outings last season.

Minella Premier arrives from Ireland having won a point to point by twelve lengths and will also likely go hurdling.

“The thing I’m excited about most this year is the novice chasers,” Henderson said of a group including Blue Run, Noble Park, Soldier Saint, Broxy Music, Katana and Bobajob.

“We didn’t have any top class novice chasers last year… I’d be awfully disappointed if there wasn’t one in this squad.

“There’s twenty-odd to go novice chasing, of which ten are top class over hurdles, so we have to be hopeful.”