SPRINTER SACRE'S stellar reputation went before him. The week before National Hunt champion trainer Nicky Henderson took his superstar to Punchestown for the Grade One, twomile Champion Chase, the course's racing manager, Richie Galway, found a man wandering the car park.
“Can I help you?” he asked. He certainly could; the man was making a 280-mile round trip from Cork and because he wasn't familiar with the layout of Ireland's most prestigious course, needed to get his bearings in plenty of time. He “had to see Sprinter Sacre”.
He wasn't the only one. Come the big day, 23 April 2013, the president of Ireland joined the record-breaking 18,607 crowd to see this spectacular horse, and everywhere Nicky went, people shook his hand to thank him for bringing the “Black Aeroplane” to Ireland. Sprinter was cheered into the parade ring, applauded as he strutted round it, and
