New faces and 'highly exciting' talent set to feature among Nicky Henderson's novice hurdle line-up

The revolving door keeps turning at Seven Barrows and a buoyant Nicky Henderson is excited to go to war with a number of new recruits for the upcoming season.

Two additions include the JP McManus-owned pair Khrisma and Kientzheim, who joined the team from France. The former has been placed in a Grade 1 AQPS bumper, while the latter is closely related to Epatante and has won in that sphere.

Henderson said: “They will go novice hurdling. They both had good form in the AQPS system, in which the likes of Epatante and Buveur D’Air came from.”

Henderson added: “We have a highly exciting crop of four and five-year-olds who will go novice hurdling this season who have shown more than enough in their bumpers last year. 

“Of the raced ones, Tradecraft was very competitive in two classy bumpers at Ascot and Kempton.”

One of those bumpers resulted in Tradecraft finishing second to the Paul Nicholls-trained Regent’s Stroll, who was sold for a world record £660,000 at Chris Giles’s dispersal sale.

“I have high hopes for him as a novice hurdler and undoubtedly over fences one day,” said Henderson.

Minella Premier: "A gorgeous individual who we’re very much looking forward to"Credit: Edward Whitaker

The trainer described Minella Premier, a point-to-point winner in Ireland, as a "gorgeous individual who we’re very much looking forward to".

Noble Park, Broxy Music, Katana, Bobajob, Soldier Saint and Blue Run are all unraced but were highlighted by Henderson.

Itstonitejosephine and Laughing John are three-year-olds who will contest the junior national hunt hurdle series, while Bear Market, the Ronnie Bartlett-owned Incisive and Sutherland, Dr Kildare, As The Fella Says, Nativehill and Centre Of Attention are also new to the team.

There were a number of three and four-year-olds on display, several of whom had been purchased during the summer, and a batch of ten new four-year-olds who recently arrived at Seven Barrows.

Henderson added: “We have received ten very well-bred four-year-olds from Ireland, all owned by Paul Holden, and they were ready to run in Irish point-to-points last spring but, as was the case for many Irish consignors, the ground dried out very quickly and they were unable to run.

"They have come here with the intention of running this autumn but are available for purchase. They are all progressing really nicely, and when we get some autumn ground we will have them ready to start in bumpers.

"They are a very impressive bunch of horses with top-class pedigrees and by all the top sires, such as Authorized, Blue Bresil, Muhtathir, Choeur Du Nord and a Jukebox Jury half-brother to Appreciate It. These four-year-olds and our three-year-olds are all available for inspection at any time."

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