you have to remember the huge number of winners he has trained.

​Nicky Henderson is a master of his trade. He is the top-most winning British trainer at the Cheltenham Festival and with the singular exception of the Grand National he has won every major jumps race in the calendar, with several of flat racing’s big handicaps thrown in to just to demonstrate his versatility. He has earned the right not to have his decisions questioned by racing journalists and the public should respect his judgement as usually his ’controversial’ decisions turn-out to be ‘inspired’.
That said, he has a knack of finding reasons not to run his very best horses in races that are in the race programme for the sort of horses stabled at Seven Barrows.
If Shishkin isn’t going to be ready for the Tingle Creek in 10-days-time, Henderson has done everyone a favour by informing us well in advance and not withdrawing the horse on the day of the race. The weather, of course, is being partly blamed, as is a wind-op the horse had back in the summer, and though fit, apparently, the horse isn’t pleasing his trainer or Nick de Boinville, his jockey.
In my limited experience, not that I have been even in the near vicinity of a horse as classy as Shishkin, racehorses have a habit of turning a corner overnight and sparkling on the gallops the next day and it is conceivable Shishkin might do likewise. I suspect, though, that Henderson knows deep down in his marrow that whatever he does with the horse between now and Sandown in ten-days the horse will still need the run and with the class of opposition he will undoubtedly face, he’ll get beat, and worse still, he’ll have a hard race that will leave its effects come the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day.
To my mind, Henderson tendency towards hesitancy, especially of late, is a direct consequence of running Altior against Cyrname at Ascot in very heavy ground, a decision on his part that he still has not forgiven himself for making. Getting Altior beat that day and taking away the horse’s air of invincibility has left a deep wound that is affecting his judgement calls.
I will defend Henderson a little, though. The 2-mile Championship races between the Schloer at Cheltenham and the 2-mile Champion Chase in March could do with some adjusting.
Firstly, apart from the Schloer, there is no condition chases over 2-miles, excepting the slightly longer Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter, and it is almost inevitable that a Henderson 2-miler will be having its first run of the season at Sandown, and this year, whichever of his 3 2-mile stars he decides to send over, the Mullins raider will also be having its first run of the season. Yet Paul Nicholls who has three seemingly lined-up for the Tingle Creek, Politologue, Greaneteen and the easier to spell Hitman, has found a pipe-opener for all of them, which gives him the upper hand, methinks. 
If I had a say in matters, I would downgrade the Tingle Creek to a Grade 2 and increase the value of the Desert Orchid at Kempton and make a Triple Crown, perhaps introducing a bonus for any horse that wins all three races, along with the Game Spirit at Newbury and the Champion Chase, of course, at the Festival. Without the last option, which most likely will be impossible to create and that the Game Spirit would be considered by some, Mr.Henderson for example, as too close to Cheltenham, I do believe a proper mid-season Festival could be achieved at Kempton if the Desert Orchid were elevated so that it has the same prestige as the King George. The same with the Christmas Hurdle.
But to return to Shishkin and his defection from the Tingle Creek. We are all in expectation of the clash between the Mullins’ superstars and Shishkin but if only Chacon Pour Soi turns up at Sandown and one of his other two 2-mile prospective 2-mile Champion Chasers suffers an injury (God forbid!) between now and the Festival, the clash of ages will never take place. And that is what races like the Tingle Creek are for. The clash will not be happening on Irish shores as Henderson only puts on his green tie for Punchestown in May and the Tingle Creek, I suspect, is the only 2-mile chase in Britain that Mullins has pencilled in for any of his horses.
The Tingle Creek will still be a fascinating context and don’t think for a moment it will be stroll in the park for Chacon Pour Soi, if he is the nominated runner from Closutton. But it has to be admitted, with Shishkin in the field it would have been elevated to a whole higher plain of expectation. So, let’s look on the bright side, there is an icy blast coming, apparently, so there is a rather large chance Sandown will be frozen off and Nicky Henderson may get an extra week to have Shishkin jumping out of his skin.