"We have a problem - there's no denying that."
Leading trainer Nicky Henderson is still trying to come to terms with the repercussions from a disastrous Cheltenham Festival, but he admits that there's no quick fix.
A month ago, all looked rosy at Henderson's Seven Barrows yard in Lambourn.
But a week before the prestigious festival, he was forced to pull red-hot favourite Constitution Hill out of the Champion Hurdle because of a lung infection.
Then five of his six runners were pulled up on the opening day of the meeting with the trainer saying on X othat there was “something affecting their performance”.
Jonbon, First Street and Kingston Pride were also withdrawn from the festival.
Henderson said on Tuesday: "We are trying to solve the issue sort out what has happened.
"We had vets all over the place yesterday.
"We are confident that we can recover in the near future, but it is difficult when you don't know what it is.
"We have sent nose swabs off for test and that can take a considerable amount of time, up to two or three weeks."
Henderson confirmed that all his horses appeared to be healthy, but he was still gutted to miss out on one of racing's Blue Riband occaions.
He said: "Cheltenham was very disappointing because we have a yard full of top-class horses but they couldn't run and that was pretty tragic.
"I fell particularly sorry for the owners because they have been waiting all year for this then it blows up in their face."
Henderson is still baffled how some horses avoided the problem and performed to the top of their ability.
Luccia, in particular, surpassed expectations to finish third in the Champion Hurdle and now looks set for run in the William Hill Aintree Hurdle on April 11.
Henderson said: "When you have some hores that seem perfectly ok then you might want to have a look at it and see whether to take bit of a chance.
"But you can't afford take that risk. Some horses looked like they were perfectly ok, but they obviously weren't.
"Every yard has problems like this from time to time.
"If it had happened in October then no one would have mentioned it, but coming in Cheltenham week was particularly galling."
Hendeerson said that he has received huge support over the past week.
He said: "Everybody has been fantastic. My owners are brilliant and they understand.
"The media and the whole racing world have been very supportive and I appreciate it."
