a must-read book: 'my life in 12-horses'.

​‘Nicky Henderson, My Life in 12-Horses’, with Kate Johnson, is, without any shade of doubt, as beautiful and concise as any book on the subject of horses or horse-racing ever published. It is a delight from Happy Warrior to Constitution Hill, though as the latter is only at the outset of his domination of the sport, he is only allowed an afterword. He is not yet one of the twelve. But that sums up the great man, doesn’t it? Always cautious, just in case it all goes horribly wrong.
The word ‘genius’ is over-used, these days. Einstein was a genius in the scientific world, I am sure no one would object to his classification as ‘extraordinary’. ‘Genius’ is a definition of intellectual power, high intelligence or out-of-the-ordinary creativity. I don’t believe the word can be applied to someone who is ’merely’ highly successful in terms of their chosen field of work, otherwise it might be applied to villains who escape justice or, God forbid! politicians. Nicky Henderson is, I believe, highly exceptional at training racehorses, perhaps the very best Britain has thus far produced. At least, the statistics suggest he sits top of the list.
One aspect of Nicky Henderson is beyond debate; he is a very nice person, with an innate understanding of the horses placed in his charge and the loyalty of his clients to him through thick, thick and the occasional thin, speaks untold volumes about the man. His compassion for his horses is borne out by being unable to forgive himself for running Altior on that very wet day at Ascot when his winning streak came to an end when defeated by Cyrname and the mud. Altior was not the same horse thereafter, while the same can be said for the victor. Nicky has not ‘moved-on’ from that public-spirited but wrong decision to allow Altior to participate and it is at the forefront of his decision-making when placed in similar dilemmas to this day.
Another thing; Nicky Henderson does not do crocodile tears. He is too genuine a man for any kind of false presentation.
He should have received a medal or some sort of industry award for his training of Sprinter Sacre. Not that the great horse received more individual attention than any other horse in his care but during the period of 2013 and 2016 his patience must have been stretched to breaking point. He never succumbed to the negativity of ‘experts’ and ‘fans’ who advised retirement for the horse, that he would never come back to anywhere close to the days of his imperious pomp, when, perhaps alone, I believe he was the best horse since Arkle. Yet Nicky was proved right. His belief never, at least publicly, wavered. Sprinter still had it in him to return to the top of 2-mile tree and on that glorious day at the 2016 Cheltenham Festival, Nicky achieved his crowning accolade. It was, I believe, the greatest individual example of training excellence of my lifetime. As I said, he should have received an award.
When hacked-off by world events or depressed, I return time and again to the 2016, 2-Mile Champion Chase to lift my spirits and I thank Nicky from the bottom of heart to be able to do so. I wonder how many other people are similarly like-minded?
Kate Johnson has done a wonderful job in bringing to the page not only great insight into the trainer’s character and beliefs but also the character and idiosyncrasies of the horses he trained to such rich success. In fact, the ‘my life through 12-horses’ might become a standard format for books featuring other top racehorse trainers. Though if Willie Mullins could whittle the great horses’ he has trained over the years down to 12, the word ‘genius’ might just be unarguably applied to him.
This book can be categorised as ‘unput-downable’ and would make an intriguing gift for someone only slightly interested in the sport as it clearly demonstrates that humans prize their time working and caring for horses as ‘beyond rubies’. A gift that keeps on giving. A good description of this book.