Altior has now officially been taken out of the Grade Two Silviniaco Conti Chase at Kempton on Saturday after Henderson finally made his decision with a vet from the BHA going to Seven Barrows to examine the horse.
The governing body released a statement on Wednesday calling for Henderson to respond to in the “interests of fairness and transparency” with the 10 year old drifting in the market ahead of what the racing world thought was his withdrawal on Tuesday but in fact, although unlikely, he could still have still gone to Kempton at the weekend.
However, the whole issue has now been cleared up with Altior a definite non runner in the contest and will now have one final run before the festival either at the Clarence House Chase at Ascot or the more likely option at Newbury in the Game Spirit.
Henderson told the PA News agency on Thursday: “As much as I would have liked to run him on Saturday, I feel that under the circumstances it is better not to – and therefore he will be taken out of the race and wait for future engagements, of which there are not very many, except for the obvious ones being the Clarence House (at Ascot) and the Game Spirit (at Newbury).
“The BHA vet came to see him this morning and totally agrees with me that the horse is fit, sound and ready to run, but obviously he doesn’t know the horse as well as we do and appreciates we might have seen a difference in him over Monday and Tuesday.”