Barry Geraghty: 'Nicky rang up and asked me what the hell I'd sold him!'

He knew the call was coming but he didn't know when and he didn't know from whom. It was only a matter of time, but when the first school report sent home included, "holding up the whole string every morning while trotting", followed by a phone call from the headmaster wondering, "what on earth have you sold me?", it was only natural for slight concerns to creep in. Maybe the genius child wasn't as intelligent or talented as he had originally thought after all. Then came the confirmation. The glorious confirmation.

It was Neil Taylor, Nicky Henderson's driver for more than two decades, who delivered the news. Not that it was news at all. It was merely verification of something he already knew.

"Neil rang me one morning last autumn, after all the horses had worked, and said 'Barry, Nicky is after being on the phone saying how he thinks that horse you sold us is an absolute aeroplane, and that's something I haven’t heard him say too often'.