Geraghty and Henderson Link-Up

Barry Geraghty is to form a strong alliance with Nicky Henderson following the retirement of stable jockey Mick Fitzgerald earlier this month.

Geraghty, who rode Henderson's Punjabi to win the ACCBank Champion Hurdle at Punchestown in April, will commute on a regular basis from Ireland to ride a number of the Lambourn handler's major hopes.

"Following Mick's retirement, there is obviously a very big gap to fill," Henderson said.

"As a result, Barry Geraghty is going to come over from Ireland a lot of the time and rather like Ruby (Walsh) does (with Paul Nicholls), he will have commitments on both sides.

"Barry has ridden a lot of winners for me in the past and the great thing about him is he is still young, hungry, we get on well and above all, he is a very good jockey."

As well as Geraghty, Henderson will be using the services of champion jockey Tony McCoy - when he is available.

"Obviously, there are going to be times when we have horses at different meetings and basically, we have an arrangement that Tony will ride for us when he is not riding for his principal retainer.

"I think we have a very good package with those two!"

Henderson is keen to stress there are still places in his team for jockeys Marcus Foley and Andrew Tinkler, as well as up and coming young pilot Felix De Giles.

Fitzgerald will also have a major input on proceedings.

"It goes without saying that Mick is going to be involved and he will help the rest of the jockeys enormously - especially with the horses that he has ridden in the past," Henderson continued.

"We are very lucky that we have a lot of very nice horses and Marcus Foley and Andrew Tinkler, who have been an integral part of the team over the years, will still be in residence.

"Felix De Giles is a top young rider and he will also stay with us.

"You have to bear in mind that Barry and Tony are not exactly 10st jockeys so the other boys will be very much part of the team this season."

Geraghty is excited by the prospect of riding Henderson's stable stars and has already been to the Seven Barrows yard to eye up some of the firepower.

"It is a very exciting prospect for me and obviously I will be riding a lot of good horses," said Geraghty.

"Most of the quality racing in Ireland is on a Sunday so hopefully I will be riding in England most Satu days and a few days during the week.

"I will continue to ride for Jessica Harrington as well so I've got the best of both worlds really.

"I went over to the yard last week and I suppose if there is one horse I'm really looking forward to it's Punjabi.

"I won on him at the Punchestown Festival earlier this year and he has progressed so he should be a big contender for the top two-mile hurdle races this season."

Meanwhile the trainer said of Binocular, "He arrived back yesterday from Martinstown, J P McManus' stud in Ireland. He has grown a little bit and is very strong. It is a notoriously difficult year for four-year-olds but Katchit proved it is possible. We haven't really thought about plans though we might look at the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle."