Interview: Nicky Henderson on the flu crisis and his stable stars

There have been many visits to Seven Barrows but none under such curious or disorientating circumstances as last Saturday.

For a start none of us should have been there because in more certain times we would all be at Newbury for Betfairs, Denmans and Game Spirits. An important afternoon and one of the very last staging posts on the run into Cheltenham a month and three days away.

But racing declared itself a non-runner, our animation very much suspended. In hospital terms while not exactly in the bed nearest the door we have all been incarcerated in the isolation unit, everyone on tenterhooks for the further detection of infection.