Strong team at happy hunting ground a good pointer to Nicky Henderson's fortunes

There would be good trainers the length and breadth of Britain and Ireland who would consider themselves to have hit a rich vein of form if they posted four winners from their last 19 runners.

Nicky Henderson does not operate to either the scale or the standards of most of his colleagues, however, and when he said immediately after a Christmas Kempton meeting which failed to hit the heights that he would be having a quiet spell, he was true to his word.

He sent out just two runners from Seven Barrows between December 30 and January 7.