'He has enormous potential and really is the most gorgeous big horse - he'll go novice chasing and he should be top-class'

As Nicky Henderson prepares his squad for the upcoming season, the six-time champion trainer will be hoping for an uninterrupted campaign. That is always the case, to a certain extent, but particularly so after the last campaign.

A challenging spring, which resulted in a first blank at the Cheltenham Festival since 2008, proved difficult for Seven Barrows, but the master trainer says it did not define a term in which his horses claimed 91 victories (one more than in 2022-23) and earn more than £2 million in prize-money for the seventh time in eight seasons.

"It was just bad luck and the only unfortunate thing was the timing," says Henderson. "If it happened in January then nobody would have noticed anything. The season was going great, even in the middle of February, and everything was roaring, but then a fortnight later it all flattened out.