Nicky Henderson hasn't bottled it at all - Shishkin just isn't ready

It was, on reflection, poor journalism on my part but I didn't know then what I know now. It was like the time I backed Irving to win the Supreme at a shorter price than Vautour. Sure, you can laugh at me now but he looked awesome at Ascot and was already rated 149 going there. It made sense. It's nonsense now.

Anyway, I was over at Seven Barrows a fortnight ago and Nicky Henderson and I were in his office warming ourselves up having been soaked in the only heavy shower to have landed on Lambourn since about 1963.

We were chatting about Sprinter Sacre and Altior when Henderson said this: "It used to frighten the life out of me when they schooled. They were just so fast. They would never ever school with another horse. They couldn't because there wasn't another horse here or anywhere in England who could have gone with them."