"He looked special" - Henderson has high hopes for new recruit

Nicky Henderson is looking forward to going novice hurdling with Willmount having taken over training duties of the unbeaten five-year-old.

Owned by Olly Harris, he commanded £340,000 at the sales following a maiden point-to-point win at Comea in February 2022 and then went on to make an immediate impact under rules last season.

He created a deep impression when partnered by Jamie Moore for his rules debut at Doncaster, scoring by 13 lengths and followed that up with another victory on Town Moor, winning by four-and-a-half lengths under a penalty.

Those two victories came while in the care of Neil Mulholland, but the talented youngster has now been switched to Seven Barrows ahead of the new jumps season kicking into gear.

“He’s only just arrived, he’s a nice horse,” said Henderson.

“He will certainly be going straight over hurdles. He’s a very nice horse actually and he looked a good horse for Neil last year. He looks very well.

“He did look a bit special, and interestingly we all knew he looked quite good because I bought his sister at the Derby Sale in Ireland over the summer hoping he might turn out to be a good horse.”