Champ is looking transformed for tilt at Cheltenham Festival

Champ and Nico de Boinville are leading contenders for next month's Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Knight, whose Best Mate won three successive renewals of the Cheltenham Festival’s signature race from 2002-04, has turned her acclaimed yard into an equine school for racehorses.

She is able to provide horses with one-to-one attention to improve their jumping – and also their partnership with their jockey.

Those who have benefitted from this unique equine expertise include Henderson’s stable jockey Nico de Boinville, who partnered Champ to his second place finish in Newbury’s rearranged Game Spirit Chase at the weekend.

Henrietta Knight and her late husband Terry biddlecombe trained Best Mate to win three successive Cheltenham Gold Cups.

While the two-mile trip was on the short side, it was an ideal prep race for next month’s Gold Cup and Henderson was pleased to see the JP McManus-owned Champ jump with such fluency in comparison to the blunders of last season.

After all, this was the horse that was clear in last season’s Dipper Novices’ Chase when crashing out at the second last – the now retired Barry Geraghty was in the saddle – and handing victory to the Sue Smith-trained Midnight Shadow.

However, he landed the Grade One RSA Chase at the Festival, coming with a late flourish, and is the leading English-trained contender for next month’s Gold Cup when Al Boum Photo, winner in 2019 and 2020, will be seeking to match Best Mate’s feat.

“He’s enjoyed himself there and he’s clearly not slow,” said a delighted Henderson. “The great thing was his jumping – it was deadly – and that will have done him the world of good.

“We boxed him over to Henrietta Knight’s the other day and he’s gone three times either way in the loose school. That (his jumping) needed ironing out and it clearly worked.

“He’s an exciting horse and much better on a racecourse than at home. You wouldn’t give two and sixpence for him on the grass gallop, but when he gets to the racecourse it’s like flicking a switch and he’s on the case full wallop!

“He’s got so much natural pace and he’s versatile. It was better to give him a kinder race than go three miles, but on the evidence of the RSA last year, we know he stays.”

Support The Yorkshire Post and become a subscriber today. Your subscription will help us to continue to bring quality news to the people of Yorkshire. In return, you’ll see fewer ads on site, get free access to our app and receive exclusive members-only offers. Click HERE to subscribe.