Trainer Nicky Henderson tells H&H about the fabulous 2011 Cheltenham Festival winner.
Fact file
Stable name: Sprinter
Age: six
Height: 16.3hh
Breed & sex: French-bred AQPS brown gelding
Sire: Network
Dam: Fatima III (by Bayolidaan)
Discipline: NH racing
Trainer: Nicky Henderson
Owners: Raymond & Caroline Mould
Rider: Barry Geraghty (Nico de Boinville at home)
Groom: Sarwah Mohammed
Best results (all 2012): Tingle Creek Chase, Arkle Chase, Maghull Novices’ Chase (all Grade 1)
Five things you didn’t know…
1 He has set three course records, at Kempton, Newbury and Cheltenham, in his past five races.
2 His Timeform rating last season of 175 is a record for a novice chaser. It not only made him the overall two-mile champion, but also third-best chaser behind Kauto Star and Long Run.
3 As a foal, he won the championship at the showcase in-hand “trade fair” for AQPS youngsters held each August at Decize, by the banks of the Loire. Robert Chugg was one of the judges.
4 Knowledge of his damline stops with his four-greats grandam Union Sacrée, who was foaled in provincial France in 1942 during the dark days of Nazi occupation and the fragmentation of the French bloodstock industry.
5 He was one of a job lot of more than 20 unbroken youngsters sourced in France by David Minton for the Moulds for a reputed £300,000.
To read the full interview with Nicky Henderson about Sprinter Sacre see 28 December issue of H&H
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