Nicky Henderson Backs Impose Toi Following Cheltenham Course Inspection

Nicky Henderson completed his annual Cheltenham course walk on Sunday and came away with a clear message for anyone tempted to write off Impose Toi: the markets are wrong.

The Seven Barrows trainer arrived at the track a little before midday to find conditions drier than expected, with dozens of workers putting the finishing touches to the course and Irish horses stretching their legs on what looked like lush turf. For connections banking on genuine soft ground, the verdict was blunt: it is not happening. Henderson, though, said the firmer surface is not a major concern for most of his 22 intended runners. The one exception is Holloway Queen in the National Hunt Chase, who he acknowledged really could have done with softer going.

His public backing of Impose Toi was the headline to emerge from the inspection, and those comments were shared in a widely viewed Racing TV clip. The JP McManus-owned seven-year-old has drifted to 14-1 in a couple of places for the Stayers' Hurdle and is also entered in the Pertemps, but Henderson is not buying the market's skepticism.

"He possibly has fallen out of favour a little bit in the markets," Henderson said. "Good ground is important. I had to run him here on Trials day. He hated the ground, he was giving them all 6lb and he still ran a good race. But he's a lot better than that."

The form case for Impose Toi before those ground-compromised runs is hard to dismiss. Prior to the Cleeve Hurdle, the gelding was imperious when landing a quality renewal of the Grade 1 Howden Long Walk Hurdle in 2025, a performance Henderson has pointed to as the true measure of what the horse can do. When asked about the Cleeve Hurdle run specifically, Henderson was equally direct in deflecting the criticism: "He has run a great race. That is not his ground, but fair play to the winner."

The thread connecting Trials Day and the Cleeve is consistent: Impose Toi has been asked to perform on ground that does not suit him, and he has still competed respectably while conceding weight. Henderson's contention is that a return to better ground, which Cheltenham's current conditions may well provide, would show a markedly different horse.

Henderson heads into the festival as the second most-successful trainer in Cheltenham history with 75 winners at the meeting, a record built on horses like Sprinter Sacre, Buveur d'Air and Altior. With 22 intended runners across the week, Impose Toi is the name he volunteered when asked whether anyone in his string was sailing below the radar. At 14-1, the market seems happy to let him sail there a little longer.