Tingle Creek pencilled in but not definite for Shishkin comeback

The Tingle Creek is “part of the plan” for Shishkin – but Nicky Henderson is refusing to confirm Sandown’s pre-Christmas feature as the dual Cheltenham Festival winner’s starting point.

The eight-year-old was due to run in the two-mile Grade One last year but was ruled out of the race by Henderson having failed to spark in the build-up to the contest, going on to make his reappearance at Kempton later in the month.

And Henderson is again willing to miss Sandown if Shishkin is not 100 per cent ready for action.

Speaking after watching the son of Sholokhov in a Newbury gallop on Tuesday, he said: “The Tingle Creek would be part of the plan, but I’m not saying that is where we are going.

“I’m not going to go through it again and say he is going to run in the Tingle Creek, I’ll say he might run in the Tingle Creek, and he’ll run in the Tingle Creek if both he’s happy and I’m happy.”

Shiskhin went into last season’s Champion Chase as the 5-6 favourite having got the better of a Energumene in classic renewal of the Clarence House Chase at Ascot.

However, his quest for a third straight Cheltenham Festival victory ended in disappointment, with Nico de Boinville pulling up his mount shortly after the eighth fence.

“We’ve got a fair bit to come back from,” Henderson continued. “We thought all was great going into Cheltenham, but we did have that torrential rain overnight before the Wednesday and the race was run in ridiculously soft ground having had beautiful ground on the first day.

“To be honest with you I could tell Nico wasn’t happy going to the first. He just didn’t pick the bridle up at all – and we thought he was in terrific form.

“The next day he was lame, and he got lamer and lamer everywhere. It wasn’t until we did a bone scan here at Donnington Grove vets that they came up with five different places where there was a problem.

“It is a sort of a condition more than a disease, it’s in all the long bones, cannon bones, femur, tibia and they think it is due to blood supply to various regions of the body which only affect the long bones and it took a long time to get him right. But having said that, we got there, and the scans were good.

“He does look well and at evening stables last night I didn’t think he’d looked better. His work has been very good, Nico has been very pleased with him, his schooling has been good, and I’ve got to say that I’ve been very encouraged by his gallop this morning.”

Newbury’s Coral Gold Cup meeting is usually the weekend that signals the beginning of the Henderson charge, with his string often well represented over the two days.

On the same weekend Epatante will head to Newcastle in a bid for a fourth straight success in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle.

Henderson said: “She’ll be off to Newcastle for the Fighting Fifth. She’s in good form and just needed that (gallop).

“But Aidan (Coleman) said she’s probably more forward than she was this time last year. She just had a good blow in the last 100 yards.”

Back in Berkshire, Champ – who was sporting cheekpieces as he was fittingly put through his paces in the racecourse gallop by Sir Anthony McCoy – is a possible for the Long Distance Hurdle on the opening day of the meeting, while Chantry House could line up in the feature Coral Gold Cup, with his trainer highlighting a lack of options over staying distances.

“AP was very pleased with Champ and so was I,” said Henderson.

“He led and enjoyed it, and he finished his gallop strongly. To be fair, AP would be giving Nico plenty of weight, so he has worked very well.

“Whether we come here next weekend we’ll have to see, but he did win the Long Walk (at Ascot) last year. We’ll have to see, but he’s in good form.

“That’s the first time he has ever had them on (cheekpieces). It was very much a bit of an experiment and I’m not sure they made a whole heap of difference. I thought they might wake him up a bit and they probably did, but not overly, so I suppose it’s worked.”

On Chantry House’s chances in the Newbury feature, he added: “I always thought he would be a horse better off in a small field and the hurly burly of a race like that doesn’t always fill him with confidence.

“He won’t be a horse who will be easy to ride in this sort of race, but on the other hand we don’t really have any other options.

“He won the Cotswold Chase last year and then things went wrong in the Gold Cup, but he is in very good form, and we will have to see.

“He needed that gallop a little bit more than I thought he would do, but the Coral Gold Cup was the original plan and he’s got to run somewhere.”