Nicky Henderson

International stars Asfoora (Aus) (Flying Artie {Aus}) and Satono Reve (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) headline entries from six countries for the eight Group 1 races at Royal Ascot. Royal Ascot offers £10 million in prize-money in 2025, with all eight Group 1 prizes worth a minimum of £650,000 and no race run for less than £110,000. Asfoora continued the superb record of Australian-trained sprinters at Royal Ascot in 2024 as she stormed to victory in the G1 King Charles III Stakes, a race she is targeting again this year. Last...

According to the Encyclopedia Britanica, a self-fulfilling prophecy is the "process through which an originally false expectation leads to its own confirmation." Horse racing's self-fulfilling prophesy appears to be the belief that only a select few trainers are capable of eliciting from the sport's finest Thoroughbred athletes their optimum talent. This notion reached an absurd low last month when a commentator for the UK's Racing Post argued that owners in possession of the best steeplechasers in England and Ireland should essentially have their heads examined for sending their horses to...

LAMBOURN, UK -- Nicky Henderson has reiterated that connections of Palladium (Ger) have Melbourne Cup ambitions for last year's G1 Deutsches Derby hero, who is first set to continue his hurdling career in the G1 Triumph Hurdle at next month's Cheltenham Festival. The race that stops a nation might not have been uppermost in Henderson's thoughts on Monday morning, as he welcomed the media to his Seven Barrows base to provide the lowdown on his formidable squad for the four-day extravaganza at Prestbury Park, but it was clear that a...

On the morning of Jonbon's ninth Grade 1 win in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot last Saturday, the recently-retired Aidan Coleman, who partnered Nicky Henderson's chaser to four of those top-level triumphs, opened up about the mental turmoil that comes with being forced out of the saddle through injury. Coleman speaks openly and honestly about coming to terms with being yesterday's man and how he is searching deep within himself to fill the void. Contextualisation alone is not enough to weather this storm but it does give Aidan Coleman...

Last year's G1 Deutsches Derby winner Palladium (Ger) (Gleneagles {Ire}) made a successful first appearance over hurdles at Huntingdon on Thursday in the colours of Lady Bamford. Bought last October for €1.4 million at the Arqana Arc Sale, the four-year-old was switched from the stable of Henk Grewe to Nicky Henderson and was sent off as odds-on favourite under Nico de Boinville for his first run for 123 days. Henderson, who also trains the hurdler First Street (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}) for Classic-winning owner-breeder Lady Bamford, said that he plans...

The promising young chaser Peaky Boy (Ire) (Kayf Tara {GB}) (lot 44) will continue his racing career with Jonjo and AJ O'Neill after he achieved the top price at Tuesday's Goffs January Sale. Offered by Nicky Henderson's Seven Barrows, the seven-year-old was led out of the ring not sold at £195,000, before being purchased privately by O'Neill Racing for an undisclosed, six-figure sum. The horses-in-training session featured a nine-strong draft from Coolmeen Farms, with their five-year-old Johnny's Jury (Ire) (lot 22) proving the most expensive of the day's other lots....

Last year's G1 Deutsches Derby winner Palladium (Ger) (Gleneagles {Ire}), who was sold for €1.4 million at Arqana, has been given his first hurdles entry by his new trainer Nicky Henderson. The four-year-old, who remains a colt, is entered for the two-mile maiden hurdle at Huntingdon next Thursday in the colours of Lady Bamford. Bred by Gestut Fahrhof and formerly trained by Henk Grewe, Palladium has won two of this six starts on the Flat, including his Classic success, which gave Germany's champion jockey Thore Hammer-Hansen his first Derby victory. ...

Great British Racing's National Racehorse Week, which takes place from September 7-15, will see 130 venues across England, Scotland, and Wales open their doors over the course of the event as it returns for the fourth consecutive year. Ninety-one yards have signed up to participate in 2024, including those of Nicky Henderson, Charlie and Mark Johnston, David Pipe and Kim Bailey. "I'm a great believer that racing yards should open their doors to the public and National Racehorse Week provides us with a golden opportunity to push the curtains aside...

Nicky Henderson and Henry de Bromhead have spoken out against the rumoured changes to the National Hunt programme in Britain that would see Grade 1 winners not being qualified to run in the Mares' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.  Dual Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle signed off on her glittering career for de Bromhead by notching a 13th Grade 1 and a second Mares' Hurdle success in what many people describe as one of the greatest moments in Cheltenham Festival history back in 2023.  Henderson has trained a galaxy of star...

Minella Premier (Ire) (Shantou) (lot 498) topped the first day of the Goffs UK Spring HIT/PTP Sale at Doncaster on Wednesday. Consigned by Minella Racing, the 4-year-old gelding went to Jerry McGrath and Nicky Henderson for £400,000. Related to Grade 2 chase winner Function Dream (Ire) (Strong Gale {Ire}), he won his debut at Ballindenisk by 12 lengths. Another to break £200,000 was Dawn Miss (Ire) (Malinas {Ger}) (lot 486), who sold to Laura Morgan for £220,000. The Monbeg Stables graduate, a full to Listed December H. Hurdle winner Booster...

Trainer Nicky Henderson took to social media late Sunday night to announce the passing of stable star Shishkin (Ire) (Sholokhov {Ire}) after getting cast in his stable and fracturing a hind leg. The multiple Grade 1-winner had been scheduled to leave for Punchestown Monday morning for a tilt at the G1 Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup. Shishkin had launched his 2024 season victoriously with a trip to the winner's enclosure Feb. 10 in the G2Betfair Denman Chase and had last been seen running fourth Apr. 11 in the G1 William Hill...

Constitution Hill (GB) (Blue Bresil {Fr}) will not run at the Cheltenham Festival, trainer Nicky Henderson has announced. The unbeaten and defending Champion Hurdle hero worked poorly at Kempton Park last Tuesday, putting his participation at the showpiece meeting in major doubt. A scope showed mucus in his lungs and despite slightly more positive news in the following days, results of a blood test on Thursday proved to be another blow. However, Henderson stressed that another blood test on Monday would probably prove to be the "acid test", and on...