In recent seasons, Nicky Henderson has
been forced to play ‘second fiddle’ to Irish trainers Willie Mullins
and Gordon Elliott at the Cheltenham Festival, at least as far as the
leading trainer award is concerned. However, it shouldn’t be
forgotten that the ‘Master of Seven Barrows’, who saddled his first
Festival winner in 1985, has won the leading trainer award nine
times, most recently in 2012.

In fact, he is the second most
successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, behind
only Mullins, with 70 winners. Henderson has won the Champion Hurdle
a record eight times – including three years running with the
talented, but fragile, See You Then in 1985, 1986 and 1987 – the
Queen Mother Champion Chase six times and the Cheltenham Gold Cup and
the Stayers’ Hurdle twice apiece. Championship races aside, Henderson
has also won the Triumph Hurdle seven times and the Coral Cup four
times; he remains the leading trainer, outright, in the history of
both races.

Apart from See You Then, other multiple
Festival winners for the yard include Bobs Worth, who won the Albert
Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle in 2011, the RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase in
2012 and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2013, and Sprinter Sacre, who won
the Arkle Challenge Trophy in 2012 and the Queen Mother Champion
Chase twice, in 2013 and 2016. The latter remains the third
highest-rated steeplechaser in the history of Timeform, behind only
Arkle and Flyingbolt.