NICKY HENDERSON is adamant Altior will be Champion Chase bound at the Cheltenham Festival.
Despite his jockey Nico de Boinville hoping to try the horse over further in the Ryanair Chase, Henderson is sticking firm with the two-mile route.
Altior has won the Champion Chase in 2018 and 2019, but has suffered defeat twice in his last three starts and missed last season’s Festival through injury.
Now 11, some punters think he’s unlikely to get back to his best where he won a brilliant 19 races in a row.
But his trainer Henderson thinks the good times are just around the corner once more, despite admitting he may be in ‘dreamland’.
He said: “There’s lots of conjecture about whether he’ll run in the Champion Chase or the Ryanair, but unless something categorically comes up and says this horse wants two-and-a-half-miles, I’m expecting to run him in the Champion Chase.
“Nico de Boinville is very keen to go two and a half, but I do think – and maybe I’m in dreamland – that there is something about him just at the moment that is different to how he was before Christmas.
“He’s gone back to doing all his work with his head on the floor. He always used to do that and it was noticeable earlier in the year that he was carrying it much higher, like a normal horse.
“Now he’s gone back to tanking along with his head down and I’m very pleased to see him like that.
“He’ll always go through that spot in a race where you think ‘are you going all right’, but he soon answers the question – and I don’t think he’s lost that.”
Altior is currently a 7-1 chance for the Champion Chase behind hot favourite Chacun Pour Soi.
He can be backed at a much bigger 16-1 for the Ryanair later in the week.
Meanwhile stablemate Shishkin is set to run at Doncaster on Saturday and could have even more eyes on him with Saturday’s huge Cheltenham card under threat.
Shishkin is currently undefeated over fences and already a warm order for the Arkle at Cheltenham in March.
Henderson said: “He’s a very straightforward horse and I’m hoping he’s straightforward enough to cope with what is probably going to be very messy ground.
“He’s has been in soft ground before. He jumped five fences the other day and was very good and Nico was happy.
“This seems the sensible place to be going. There are only two races you can run him in between now and the Arkle – the Kingmaker at Warwick is the alternative, but it’s the same day as we would like to be running Altior at Newbury, so I don’t really want them to be in two different places at the same time.
“Within reason I think this is the right place to be. Doncaster is a good novice chase course. The fences have got to be jumped and this is always a good race.
“Shishkin is a genuine two-miler, so this should be a good place to be, even if it’s a bit wet.”
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