NICKY Henderson is ‘furious’.
In the latest verse of Altior hokey-cokey, he hit out at the BHA for its handling of events over the past week.
Henderson had taken criticism from many corners over his decision to scratch Altior from the Silviniaco Conti Chase, after he tweeted the news before a full update on his Unibet blog.
It later transpired that Henderson had rethought his thinking and could have run his star in the Grade 2 at Kempton after all, but decided against it.
A BHA vet visited the yard on Thursday to look over the horse after the authority had reminded Henderson of his ‘responsibilities’ around declaring horses non-runners.
But in the latest twist, the Seven Barrows boss has blasted the BHA for not revealing that Henderson had in fact called their integrity department on Tuesday morning when the drift on Altior began, as money also came for stablemate Top Notch.
Speaking at Kempton on Saturday, Henderson said: “Altior is absolutely fine. As you know, vets have been down to see him and they say he is absolutely fine.
“When anybody says I’ve not been forthcoming, at quarter to nine that Tuesday morning I rang the BHA and told them – then everybody is knocking me.
“I couldn’t be public until I talked to the owner and I think that is only fair game. I couldn’t go public so I rang the BHA.
“Have they ever mentioned that? I’ve been furious with the whole thing. Who is getting shot the whole time through?”
The trainer took flak from punters as Altior drifted out to 5-2 from 1-4 on Tuesday morning as stablemate Top Notch shortened into favouritism for Kempton’s Grade 2.
But Henderson is adamant he did the right thing and believes he has been stitched up by the BHA.
He added: “On the Tuesday morning, me and Nico (de Boinville) looked at him and we took a view that we decided we weren’t going to do what we had planned for him.
“Very early on there was a rumour and the first thing I did, and the BHA haven’t mentioned it, was I rang the BHA to tell them I wasn’t happy with the horse and there was a rumour.
“Why couldn’t the BHA have mentioned that in all these statements that came out of there?
“If you say you are not going to run, there is a requirement you scratch the horse, but I said we are still in the race and I reserve my judgement.
“We thought he looked better the next day. A veterinary officer came to see him and agreed he looked sound.”
The BHA confirmed Henderson had been in contact on Tuesday, but fought back and insisted its statement on Wednesday was an “entirely separate issue”.
A spokesperson said: “We can confirm that Mr Henderson contacted us on Tuesday morning.
“It would not be standard practice for the BHA to proactively make public the details of confidential conversations with a trainer, particularly if those conversations related to the potential use of inside information.
“Mr Henderson’s call was to let us know that he was concerned about why the horse was drifting in the market despite no decision having been made about his participation.
“The BHA was in regular contact with Mr Henderson from Tuesday morning onwards in relation to this, but the communication of a horse’s running plans is a matter for the trainer.
“This, however, is an entirely separate issue to our statement on Wednesday evening, which was instead related to the fact that Mr Henderson had not yet scratched the horse despite having said on Tuesday that it was not going to run and designed to keep the racing and betting public up to date.”
