Transparency and trust are the only known cure for 'Henderson Syndrome'

For reasons of sanity, I do my best not to engage with any form of social media. I am amazed Nicky Henderson hasn't adopted the same approach.

When Henderson (or a tech savvy assistant) took to the social media platform X last Saturday morning to announce that Constitution Hill would not be running in the Fighting Fifth – nor Shishkin in the same race, nor Willmount on the same Sandown card – he must have done so fully expecting that a fair amount of criticism would be coming his way.

As it turned out, there was perhaps more understanding than he must have feared, the desperate ground accepted by some as a valid reason not to run the Champion Hurdle winner little over two weeks before his first big target over Christmas, especially as Henderson had warned of the possibility of such an outcome. But it didn't appease everyone; far from it, as others claimed things were getting "boring" now, suggested we wouldn't get this from Willie Mullins or pointed out that heavy ground at Sandown was hardly the Somme.