Nicky Henderson reaches century milestone for season with two winners

An industrious morning and a successful afternoon left Nicky Henderson a contented man on Thursday after he broke through the 100-winners and £1m prize money barriers for the season with two successful mounts. Having scrapped plans to take some of his team for a gallop at Newbury racecourse, Henderson was at the Mandown gallops in Lambourn shortly after sunrise to see a number of his team put through their paces, including the Champion Hurdle possible Spirit Son and Burton Port, who is on course for the Gold Cup despite being out of action for over a year through injury. "It was a normal work morning, but a very busy one and we took a few to Mandown," said the trainer. "What I would say is that everything went pretty much as we would have wanted and now we'll sit down and make some proper plans. Finian's Rainbow schooled over five fences under Barry [Geraghty] and he's going to Ascot on Saturday in good form." After work, Henderson and Geraghty travelled to Ludlow only to find that by the time of their arrival, the trainer had reached his seasonal century of winners with the Andrew Tinkler-ridden Nelson's Bridge in the opener at Taunton. However, the trainer took particular satisfaction in the subsequent all-the-way success of Kid Cassidy in the novice chase, the gelding having looked one to avoid when running himself into the ground at Lingfield on his previous start. "I think Lingfield was a bit of an eye-opener," said Henderson. "He was too keen going to post, he ran into the rails. I don't know what time he would have covered the first mile in, but I don't think even Frankel could have laid up with him. "The poor horse was one of those affected on that ghastly day at Newbury [when two horses were electrocuted due to a cabling fault under the parade ring] and I think it's been in his mind ever since. "He very nearly died on us after Lingfield. He actually went to complete zero in the vets' yard three hours after that fall. His pulse was zero. So to have him back and winning is marvellous. We've tried lots of new bits of kit and things and today was a big improvement. Even going down to the start he was better. "He is very talented, but it's just trying to keep a lid on it. His jumping was good. He wasn't trying to eat fences, he was being sensible."