Champ on his travels as Henderson plots offbeat warm-up for RSA favourite

A trip to the Scottish Borders awaits RSA Novices' Chase favourite Champ as Nicky Henderson eyes a confidence booster at Kelso on Thursday week.

The JP McManus-owned eight-year-old fell at the second-last in the Dipper Novices' Chase at Cheltenham last month having won his two previous chase starts at Newbury.

Champ is a best-price 7-2 favourite for the RSA with Betfair Sportsbook and Paddy Power and also entered in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, for which he is a standout 16-1 with William Hill and as short as 5-1 with bet365 and Betfred.

Henderson said: "Champ was quite lame in the stables at Cheltenham for a period after his fall, and they did x-ray his shoulder, but he was sound the next morning. Kelso is three miles and a nice race for him as it's a quieter place to go. He had a fair fall but he's schooled well since.

“I just think Champ needs to go left-handed and I'd rather go to Kelso than right-handed at Ascot in the Reynoldstown, which is where Pym will probably come into the reckoning.”

Champ: named after legendary ex-jockey Sir Anthony McCoyCredit: Edward Whitaker

Henderson is still establishing a pecking order for a typically strong team of good novice hurdlers, but he will know more when Shishkin and Chantry House have run later this week.

Shishkin runs in the Sidney Banks Novices' Hurdle on Thursday at Huntingdon and Henderson said: "I think he's a good horse. We are going two miles three at Huntingdon but that ought to suit him well round there.

"You have got to stay well around Cheltenham. Nico [de Boinville] mentioned the Ballymore at Newbury for him, but I’m of the opinion he's a two-mile horse.

"He looked very good last time considering the ground. You don’t often see horses quicken up like that in very soft ground and they tell me it was a very good time. He's done everything right."

Chantry House runs on Saturday at Newbury and Henderson said: "Chantry House might just want an extra half a mile. It's two on Saturday and it's quite a nice race as he gets a 6lb penalty and not a 10lb one.

"He was green at Cheltenham and wants experience. Hopefully, he'll have learned a lot there and will have one more little lesson at Newbury.”

One surprise Henderson entry at Newbury is Might Bite against old rival Native River in the Betfair Denman Chase. Although the 2017 King George winner is a likely runner, it was something of an afterthought prompted only by the prospect of a small field.

Henderson said: "Might Bite has no pretensions of beating Native River, and there was no plan to run here until it looked as if it might be a very small field, but he's fit and well, and he seems very bright in himself.

"He's been doing lots of schooling and has been having lots of fun. Nico took him schooling over all sorts of things the other day and he absolutely loved it, but he hasn't galloped yet."

Nicky Henderson: 'Kelso is three miles and a nice race for him as it's a quieter place to go'Credit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Henderson watched events at Leopardstown's Dublin Racing Festival over the weekend with interest, but he has no regrets about giving the meeting's eight Grade 1 races a miss.

Every one of the meeting's Grade 1s had implications for Henderson's Cheltenham Festival hopes, and he paid particularly close attention to the main events. However, he is not sure what conclusions to draw.

He said: "There were no yardsticks for us there and really we just have to mind our own business and make sure we are in good shape rather than worrying about what everyone else is doing.

"But the Champion Hurdle is hotting up a lot, the Champion Chase is hotting up too, and the Gold Cup is as well. Sometimes you get a weak division somewhere, but the novice hurdles are looking very strong too and we are going to have to be at full strength wherever we go."

The Irish Gold Cup victory of RSA Chase third Delta Work paid an indirect compliment to Henderson's RSA runner-up Santini, who is disputing second favouritism at around 5-1 behind Al Boum Photo for the Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Henderson said: "The Irish Gold Cup was a very good race and it was exciting to watch, but there was no real standout. Al Boum Photo still holds the crown, and he's possibly the one we all still have to beat."

He added: "Santini did all he could have done the other day, which was very pleasing, and he's been in terrific form since Cheltenham. He's been beaten only once over fences, and that was by three-quarters of a length in the RSA, when he'd had no preparation whatsoever.

"I admit he wasn't impressive at Sandown, but he wasn't psyched up for that. I thought he was going to get an easy race and he didn't. He was sloppy, but it was horrible ground.

"He's got good experience of Cheltenham, having been there twice, and that's obviously a help. It was a good test against Bristol De Mai and I think they thought he was in good form. It took him no time to get over it. It took nothing out of him at all."

Epatante, who is clear favourite for the Unibet Champion Hurdle, is likely to have a racecourse gallop somewhere and Henderson added she was "in good form".

He said he still intended running "quite a few" and added that Fusil Raffles was in particularly good form ahead of his next start, which will be at either Wincanton or Kelso next week.

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