'Last season was very unlucky in many ways - lots of people thought it was a disaster but it wasn't'

A troubled spring that resulted in a blank Cheltenham Festival did not stop Nicky Henderson from celebrating a successful campaign at his annual owners’ day on Sunday.

You have to go back to 2008 for the last time the Seven Barrows team failed to score at jump racing's biggest meeting, but Henderson was without a host of runners, including Constitution Hill and Jonbon, and saddled a team of 16 at Prestbury Park, half of whom pulled up and failed to finish their respective races.

However, it was not all doom and gloom for Henderson, who for the third successive season surpassed the £2 million barrier for prize-money.

He said: “Some people thought last season was a disaster, but it wasn’t. We won over two million pounds and that’s a lot of prize-money – we weren’t far behind.

“The timing was catastrophic, but these things happen. Everyone who has ever trained a racehorse knows it could happen to anyone at any time. We just had to take a month out and be very patient.

Shishkin's up-and-down season had a tragic endCredit: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images

"It was a very unlucky season in many ways. If you think about what had happened – Shishkin threw away the King George, the Fighting Fifth didn’t happen, and Constitution Hill, and a lot of them, didn’t get to Cheltenham. You can say Jonbon surely would have won the Champion Chase with the way it was run in the end.”

Although Constitution Hill did not feature post-Kempton in December, Shishkin bounced back after his King George heartbreak to land the Grade 2 Betfair Denman Chase at Newbury in February. He later suffered a fatal injury in his stable when being prepared for the Punchestown Gold Cup.

Henderson added: “On Betfair day, when Shishkin won the Denman and Iberico Lord won the Betfair Hurdle, things were flying. We were having a terrific year. They bounced back and finished well.

“Poor old Shishkin; people can say what they like but he would’ve won the King George. We lost two of the biggest races before Christmas and that’s prize-money between £300,000 and £400,000. It was horrible.”

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