Oscar Whisky well worth his place against Big Buck's in World Hurdle at Cheltenham Festival

"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.”

Jockey Robert Winston has his appeal against 22-day whip ban dismissed by British Horseracing Authority

Winston hit his mount seven times behind the saddle and three times down the neck with the whip in the forehand position, something which was banned even before the new whip rules were introduced in October.

The use of the whip in the forehand down the neck can only be used in exceptional circumstances and the panel did not deem this occasion an ‘exceptional circumstance.’ Because it was Winston’s second offence in a 12-month period, what would normally have been an 11-day suspension was doubled to 22.

He is fourth jockey to appeal against a ban since the new rules came in and, just like Ruby Walsh, Aidan Coleman and Dominic Elsworth before him, the disciplinary panel backed the original decision of the local stewards.

On Friday Paul Bittar, the new chief executive of the BHA, will get his first chance to hear directly from the jockeys on the subject of the whip when he meets a representation from the Professional Jockeys Association.

The meeting was organised some time ago as part of the ongoing dialogue between the two parties on racing’s current hot potato. Apart from chief executive of the PJA Kevin Darley, he will meet jump jockey Andrew Thornton and George Baker from the Flat.

Bittar gives his first interviews on Friday since getting his feet under the desk at 75, High Holborn on Wednesday. He will be interviewed by Radio 5 Live at 7.15am and, 10 minutes later at 7.25, he will speak with the Today programme on Radio 4, no doubt giving his first impressions of the most difficult job in racing.