Job Done For Henderson

They say Cheltenham is the place where dreams are either shattered or realised and for Nicky Henderson this week it was certainly a case of the latter.

Not content with a win in the Ryanair Chase with his stable pet Fondmort, he then went and followed up with the winner in the race named after his father, the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase on the final day.

And the Lambourn maestro capped a fantastic four days by claiming the award for the leading trainer at the meeting as well, helped along by the victory of Non So in the Racing Post Plate.

It was no secret the Seven Barrows handler had targeted the race and the fact that eventual winner Greenhope was allowed to go off at 20-1 was a bit of an insult.

'Mick (Fitzgerald) and I couldn't decide which one had the best chance so I left it up to him. He stuck with Tysou because he had had a great year,' Henderson said.

'Greenhope has had one run over hurdles but this race had always been his objective and he is a very talented horse. It really is a fairytale.

'There are Gold Cups and all the other special races run on this course but this was the one I wanted to win this week.

'Cheltenham and I owe my father an awful lot, he helped the course back on it's feet, not just me on mine.'

Black Jack Ketchum ran out a mightily impressive nine-length winner of the Brit Insurance Novices' Hurdle earlier on the card and is already being talked of as a World Hurdle horse for next year.

The had been plenty spoken about the seven-year-old's target in the lead up to the Festival but after this display there is no doubt he ran in the correct race and it proved a perfect pick-me-up for trainer Jonjo O'Neill, who was at home with the flu.

It was also a third winner at the meeting for champion jockey Tony McCoy.

'The first day I won on him at Uttoxeter it was a very average race but I said to Carl Llewellyn ?this is some machine'. He's got a great attitude and never gets bothered,' the rider said.

Ruby Walsh just managed to pip McCoy to the top jockey award though when he won the last race of the meeting, the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle for Paul Nicholls.

The 4-1 joint favourite was always going well and sprinted clear on the run-in to beat Noble Request.

'The horses ran well early in the week but we have been unlucky with a few and I really thought this horse would take all of the beating,' Nicholls said.

The amateurs' Gold Cup, the Christie's Foxhunter Challenge Cup, was won by the Irish raider Whyso Mayo to make it a record 10 winners at the meeting for the Emerald Isle.

? PA Sport