"My instinct is that he’ll get three [miles]. You saw what happened when we went an extra half-mile at Cheltenham and it’s only another three furlongs in the World Hurdle.
“Of course we bump into Big Buck’s, which is daunting. But he has the speed to travel with Big Buck’s and if the stamina holds out, then we’ve as good a chance as anything of getting near him.
"But let’s get Ffos Las out of the way before we make too many decisions.”
As Henderson pointed out, it was not until Big Buck’s beat his Punchestowns, firstly in the Cleeve Hurdle and then the World Hurdle, that people realised quite how good he was.
“Punchestowns was a very good stayer, but he’d never have finished third in a Champion.”
Trainer Martin Lynch has ruled Oscar Time, last season’s Grand National runner-up, out of this year’s race after the 11 year-old developed a tendon injury.
The gelding very nearly completed a Gold Cup-Grand National double for his amateur rider Sam Waley-Cohen, who said: “It just reminds you to make the most of the good days.”
