'I know people will say they've heard it all before - but when I see Constitution Hill now, he's suddenly developed quality'

Nicky Henderson is a man who loves a challenge. In his innumerable decades in the sport, he has overtaken his old boss, the legendary Fred Winter, won six trainers' titles, several times usurping his great modern-day rival Paul Nicholls, and stood defiantly in the path of the Willie Mullins battalions, like a tweed-clad protester in Tiananmen Square.

Henderson hasn't always come out on top, but he has never shirked an issue, and as the jumps season steps out warily on to turf belatedly eased by autumn rain, he is not about to be defeated by the latest and greatest one: climate change. He can accept it, even welcome the nice weather that comes with it, he says, but whatever the world's more befuddled politicians may think, he is in no doubt it's a challenge he has to meet with his customary resilience.

"Whether you want to believe it or not, we have global warming, which means we have wonderful summers, and then, eventually, bottomless winters," he shrugs, glancing across at turf gallops that sat unused for weeks before the recent deluge.