'Horses like Jonbon and I Am Maximus keep you going'

For the first time since 1998 Nicky Henderson did not have any runners in the Grade 1 novice hurdles at the Cheltenham Festival in March, but "it will be an awful disappointment if we haven't this season".

"Last year I was confident about the novice chasers and now it's the novice hurdlers," said the leader of Lambourn's highest-profile yard.

"I think this will be an exciting division for us and then next year I hope I'm talking about novice chasers again because the Jonbons and I Am Maximuses will be going over fences; they're the horses who keep you going."