Nicky Henderson: patience and parties keep 'complete legend' at top of the game

There are plenty of people who enjoy success as racehorse trainers, but there are almost as many who fade very quickly from the forefront of our memories. There are some whose flame burns a little longer until it sputters and dims, still fewer whose fire stands up to a buffeting from the winds of change and is rekindled to singe the eyebrows of startled rivals.

If we are seeking a category in which to place Nicky Henderson, then all we need to do – in inappropriately modern fashion – is consider the statistics. We need to take on board the 64 Cheltenham Festival winners, of course, but more tellingly we should consider the five trainers' titles, and most pertinently the 26 years that separated the first two (in 1986 and 1987) from the third.

Henderson is not an 'alchemist' of the Pipe variety, but even though he had entered his sixth decade on this earth and spent 35 seasons with a training licence, he still had sufficient snap in his celery to reclaim the crown many had doubted he would ever wear again.