NICKY HENDERSON declared: “We’ve got the old Shishkin back!” as his once-great two-miler reinvented himself with an imperious triumph in the Ascot Chase.
Having made his name at National Hunt racing’s minimum distance with four victories at the highest level, Shishkin suffered his first defeat over fences when pulled up in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham last March.
The flop was excused on account of a rare bone disorder but, when the nine-year-old reappeared with a laboured third in the two-mile Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown Park in December, Henderson set his mind on a change of course.
