Henderson happy with Shop

Trainer looking for second Hennessy victory with Queen's horse

Last updated: 27th November 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Barbers Shop

Barbers Shop

Related links

Also see

Nicky Henderson is looking forward to a good performance from Barbers Shop in Saturday's Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup.

The Lambourn trainer won the race for the first time with Trabolgan in 2005 and is expecting the Queen's horse to go close on this occasion under Barry Geraghty.

Barbers Shop was last seen in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, in which he travelled well for a long way before tiring to finish seventh.

But Henderson is not concerned by the long absence having saddled four winners over the first two days of the Hennessy meeting.

"Everything with him is great and he'll like the ground as it is," said Henderson.

"I was worried we were going to be racing on very soft ground and I'm amazed how good it actually is.

"We could have taken on Kauto Star at level weights (in the Betfair Chase) or come here to race against Denman getting weight - I thought it was worth a try.

"He ran a fantastic race first time out last season in the Paddy Power so I wouldn't worry about that (lack of a run)."

Meanwhile, 19 runners will go to post following the withdrawal of the Irish-trained Casey Jones and Ferdy Murphy's New Alco, who was cast in his box overnight.