Act Of Innocence set to be seen next at Huntingdon

Act Of Innocence will be rerouted to the Sidney Banks Memorial Novices’ Hurdle at Huntingdon after Nicky Henderson elected not to run his promising youngster in the delayed final race at Cheltenham on Saturday.

An impressive winner on his stable debut at Newbury before being touched off by the Paul Nicholls-trained Minella Yoga at the same track, the six-year-old was due to step up in trip for the AIS Novices’ Hurdle.

The Grade Two contest was run almost 30 minutes later than scheduled and in near darkness after a hole in the ground was discovered – and the fading light left the judge struggling to split Kripticjim and Taurus Bay in a tight finish, with the former eventually called the winner by a short head after television footage had to be reviewed by the stewards as the print was not sufficiently clear.

The decision to run the race drew criticism from some quarters, but Henderson – who endured a difficult afternoon after Sir Gino suffered what transpired to be a fractured pelvis and Impose Toi was beaten in the Cleeve Hurdle – defended the racecourse.

On his decision to withdraw Act Of Innocence, the trainer told the Press Association: “It was nothing to do with what happened that he didn’t run, I just felt (running over) two-miles-five in that ground wasn’t the right thing to do.

“I’d been saying it all day – I was worried about running Impose Toi in that ground, too. Funnily enough Sir Gino wasn’t one of my headline worries in that ground.

“Why do we have to run them? We know what we’re trying to do, we’re trying to get them to March. Do they need a race? In simple terms, no they don’t, and by the end of the day we decided that Act Of Innocence did not need to go – he’s never beyond two miles and he’s a quick horse.

“I would have thought the Sidney Banks is an obvious race and to be honest with you it was in my mind already. Two and a half round Huntingdon is absolutely perfect for him.”

Henderson added of the end to the day: “The racecourse did everything they possibly could, they were vigilant, they found the problem luckily before anything could have gone wrong and they did well to re-run the race.

“We just took a personal decision with that horse. The racecourse did nothing wrong at all and the clerk of the course (Jon Pullin) was not at fault at all – he did everything and had been incredibly helpful all day to me.

“This could have happened anywhere at any time and luckily they spotted it before any disaster could happen.

“It (the hole) wasn’t there half an hour before – land subsides, it does. I’m not getting into the scientific part of it, but there is no criticism whatsoever in my opinion and my owners certainly agree with what I’m saying and are thinking what I’m thinking.

“I was in the stewards’ room and we were all in favour of racing, it was just bad luck that the closest finish of the day was in the dark.”

While Long Distance Hurdle and Long Walk winner Impose Toi was beaten as an odds-on favourite, finding Emma Lavelle’s Ma Shantou seven lengths too strong, Henderson remains keen to target the Stayers’ Hurdle with the JP McManus-owned gelding.

He said: “Impose Toi was the horse I was always nervous about, so was Nico (de Boinville) in that ground.

“I think he ran a great race, just in that very soft ground after the last hurdle, he just sort of floundered around in that a bit.

“I’m delighted with him, he’s got a schedule and that stays as it is.”