2 weeks Ago By [email protected] (Melissa Jones)
Nicky Henderson has described the "crazy" pre-race antics of Jeriko Du Reponet before the favourite's disappointing run at Sandown. The 8-11 favourite made a serious jumping error across the fourth last fence and was pulled up by jockey Nico de Boinville. But Henderson, champion trainer on six occasions, has insisted the horse was fine to run as the vet checked him over before the start on Sunday.
Successful on his only start in points, Jeriko Du Reponet was then acquired by leading owner JP McManus and took his first three starts over hurdles, including the Grade 2 Rossington Main Novices' Hurdle at Doncaster. He was then pulled up trying the highest grade in the 2024 Cheltenham Festival's opening Supreme Novices' Hurdle - and put away to start again over National Hunt's biggest jumps. However Henderson was baffled by the 135-rated runner's display, after he took an extra ten minutes to reach the start.
Explaining what happened on Racing TV, he said: “It was strange, very strange and this horse has a wonderful temperament. But to saddle today, you would have thought we were trying to break in a lion, it was crazy and totally out of character. “We then had to resaddle him and take him back up to the saddling boxes.
The vet looked at him and listened to him and then checked him again at the start and I said to Nico (de Boinville), if you are not happy when you get down there (don’t take any risks). “But when he got on him no probs, back to normal, everything was back to normal. He was good to go and I had walked the ground and was happy with that.
Everything was good to go apart from pre-saddling.” Priced at the prohibitive odds of 1-5 overnight, Jeriko Du Reponet drifted out to 8-11 as the tapes rose. He raced in third, pecked on landing at the second fence and slipped when he made his race-ending mistake, further along in the event over almost two miles.
Henderson's explanation to the stewards that the gelding was upset while being saddled and made a bad jumping error, was noted, while the on-course had nothing to report during routine testing. The handler added: "Nico said he then started to warm back up and was warming up, warming up, warming up all the way down the back and started to get his jumping going until the last of the railways and Nico said you had to see it to believe it – he just slipped from yards out straight into the fence. “Quite rightly he pulled him up.
You can’t take a chance with the horse, but he wasn’t going to win anyway. His confidence by that point had two serious shocks and he wasn’t ready for another one. "He’s a very, very good horse and I seriously believed he would canter round today and we would be talking about coming back here for the Henry VIII.
I don’t think we’ll be doing that for the time being and we will have to regroup.".
