Nicky Henderson: Sprinter Sacre looks too good not to run at Sandown

Nicky Henderson feels Sprinter Sacre is in such rude health he has little option but to let him take his chance in Saturday’s bet365 Celebration Chase at Sandown.

The 10-year-old’s resurgence has been one of the most heartwarming stories of the campaign and there was hardly a dry eye in the house when he regained his Queen Mother Champion Chase crown in breathtaking fashion at Cheltenham last month.

While that emotional success would appear the perfect way to end his campaign, Henderson has been so thrilled with his stable star since that run, he is happy to let him strut his stuff once more on the final day of the season.

“All is good and all is well. I’ve been looking for an excuse all week not to run him, but I can’t find one I’m afraid,” said the Seven Barrows handler.

“I’m delighted with him and while we obviously don’t have to run him, he’s telling us he wants to run, so we’ll let him do just that.

“I’d be the first to pack him up for the season if I thought he’d had enough, but he seems in very good form.”

In a rematch of the Champion Chase, Sprinter Sacre is once again taken on by the Willie Mullins-trained Un De Sceaux.

Having never previously suffered defeat when completing over jumps, the Irish challenger was a red-hot favourite for the two-mile showpiece, but had to make do with the runner-up spot.

Connections are happy the pressure is off their horse following his odds-on reverse at Prestbury Park.

“It’s almost as good as the Champion Chase, yet he went from being bad value there to almost looking good value in this,” said owner Colm O’Connell.

“We’re happy to go and for once there’s no pressure, that’s all on Sprinter Sacre. It’s nice to be the underdog.

“To be beaten by Sprinter Sacre, I was down but not for very long as he’s one of the best chasers we’ve seen.

“Nicky Henderson kept saying he had him back and he didn’t need to be right back to his best to win it. Eighty per cent would be good enough. But has it left a mark on him? It may have left a mark on us too, we don’t know.

“When Sandown was mooted for us, we were very keen to go as the Champion Chase was a scrappy race for us. I think we teed it up a bit for Sprinter. If he beats us again then fair enough, but I think we warrant a rematch and the public deserve to see it.

“We had no idea what would happen to him once he got headed and he was beaten. Most people learn these things with a horse who is four or five, but the first time it happened to us he was eight.

“He’d gone four years doing the same thing, blasting off and winning or falling. You never know, Paul Nicholls might ask one of his to take us on this time, we’ll have to be prepared.

“Racing has been starved of answers to big questions in the past and the public deserve to see what would happen between these two a second time, if we’d gone to Punchestown we wouldn’t learn anything.

“If we come off second best again, then there’s no doubt and I suppose against a horse like Sprinter you never can count your chickens. He took four lengths out of the field with one jump at Cheltenham, he’s majestic.

“Paul (Townend) rode him at the weekend so that it won’t be a shock to him and I’m sure he’ll talk to Ruby.

“We were meant to go to the Tingle Creek, so it will be nice to finally get to Sandown and it would be fantastic if we can pay Willie back by helping him win the championship.”

Mullins’ son and assistant, Patrick, accepts they have a job to do in trying to change the Cheltenham form around.

He said: “What we took from Cheltenham is that Un De Sceaux is probably more effective on heavy ground.

“He was staying on again at the finish, but he just beat Special Tiara. He is a good horse in his own right, but we don’t think that’s our fellow’s best form.

“It’s hard to see us turning the tables on Sprinter Sacre, but Sprinter Sacre might have an off-day and we’re there to give it our best shot.

“It’s going to be some spectacle watching him and Sprinter Sacre going at it down the back in Sandown.”

Sire De Grugy was well-beaten in the Champion Chase, but had finished a good second behind both Sprinter Sacre and Un De Sceaux in his two previous races.

Gary Moore’s stable star also loves Sandown having won this race in 2013 and 2014.

“I’m very pleased with him,” said Moore.

“It looks like a re-run of the Champion Chase. It’s going to be a tough race for him, but at least he’s back on a track where he’s at his best.

“It was quick ground at Cheltenham and he’s not a quick ground horse. He wasn’t too far behind the Champion Chase winner (Sprinter Sacre) at Kempton.

“They’ve forecast rain on Friday night and the water table must be pretty high.

“It’s nearly a Cheltenham Festival at Sandown and we looking forward to it.”

The other three runners — Dodging Bullets, Solar Impulse and Ulck Du Lin — are all trained by Paul Nicholls as he hopes to pick up some crucial prize money in his bid to beat Mullins for the trainers’ title.

“On this year’s form we have the lesser half of the field, we are up against the best two-milers around,” said his assistant Tom Jonason.

“Dodging Bullets seems in good form going into this but he is not quite the same horse as last year, however, he goes there in really good form.

“Solar Impulse deserves his chance in a race like this. He won the Grand Annual then, to be fair, at Ayr the ground was too soft and that is why we pulled him out of Aintree.

“If he gets the good ground, he will run a nice race. If we don’t win, we hope Sprinter Sacre does.”