Grandouet proves a singular triumph for Nicky Henderson

Grandouet

A week ago Nicky Henderson could do little wrong.

Five winners at Kempton Park last Saturday, including both the King George VI Chase and Christmas Hurdle, was part of a purple patch where the trainer saddled 17 winners in 14 days. He saddled four favourites at Ascot of which three were beaten. However the winner went a long way to sugaring the pill as Henderson contemplated a possible sixth JCB Triumph Hurdle.

Granduet’s seasons has been something of a learning experience, for both horse and trainer, but lessons have been heeded on both sides and he won the Ascot Annual Badgeholders' Juvenile Hurdle with insouciant ease, making light of an 8lb penalty,

Barry Geraghty did his best to keep Granduet from taking the lead, even when he jumped to the front of the field at the fourth-last, but eased upsides Two Kisses after jumping the penultimate flight and came six lengths clear with little more effort than would have been required for morning work on the Lambourn gallops.

The fitting of earplugs, which is becoming more of a trend with French-bred horses, has been one of the reasons why Granduet has settled better in his races after he ran far too freely on his first run for Henderson at Wetherby. He was well beaten by Sam Winner at Cheltenham in November but looked more the finished article – from what little could be seen on a foggy day – when he won with Tony McCoy in the saddle at Newbury late last month and Henderson is planning one more run before the Triumph Hurdle.

“You’d like what he’s done - I don’t know what he beat, but he’s just getting the hang of this,” Henderson said. “The first time we ran him he was far too keen and he was rushing all over the place.”

Explaining the use of earplugs Henderson said: “We have because they rang up from France and said ‘no wonder he ran like that – he didn’t have the earplugs in’. So, not surprisingly, earplugs went in. And he’s learning to settle now. I had to go and ask AP before the race ‘what did happen at Newbury?’ because we saw nothing – except for when he arrived after the last. He said that he was good to settle and sat mid-div and that what we did there.
“The only danger he was in there was jumping his way to the front a lot sooner than we’d have liked. He’s got a lot of pace.”

That can be a very potent weapon in the Triumph for which Henderson could be attempting a hat-trick of wins following on from Zaynar in 2009 and Soldatino last year. “I think it’s where he’s got to go. We ummed and aahed about going to the Finesse [Hurdle] next week at Cheltenham. But the whole point of coming here, and not going to the Finesse, is to try and let us go to the Adonis [Hurdle at Kempton Park on February 26th] because I’d like to go to Kempton and then Cheltenham,” Henderson said.

“He doesn’t need the experience but, as Barry said, he hasn’t had a terribly hard race today. In fact he hasn’t had one so it’ll do him no harm rather than go galloping round at home.”

After this performance there would look little that could go wrong with that plan.

Paul Wheeler

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