Constitution Hill goes to the Fighting Fifth with a proper chance

Turn the clock back 12 months, and Constitution Hill’s workout at Newbury’s Coral Gold Cup gallops morning left you with more questions than answers, as he failed to keep tabs on stablemate Sir Gino when asked to quicken by Nico de Boinville. 

A few days later he was found to be lame and missed his expected return in the BetMGM Fighting Fifth Hurdle.

Constitution Hill came back to win the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle and Unibet Hurdle, but a challenging spring with heavy falls in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham and then Aintree, followed by a very poor run in Ireland, ended his unbeaten run and made the task of getting him back to his best even harder.

Fast forward to a November morning at Newbury and the mood of trainer Nicky Henderson and owner Michael Buckley appeared a lot more positive as they traded laughter and smiles following Constitution Hill’s two laps of the track in front of the hundreds in attendance.

Yes, this time around he was working with two horses who will not reach the same levels as Sir Gino, but he showed everything you would want to see from a horse on a retrieval mission. He was positioned to sit behind his stablemates, but he quickly joined alongside them before pulling away inside the final furlong, something we have seen him do on many occasions when De Boinville has flicked the button.

The fact he was able to do that again, albeit against different calibre horses, can only be a positive.

The real test will come at Newcastle on Saturday week, but Henderson and his team have done everything in their power to ensure Constitution Hill goes to the Fighting Fifth with a proper chance of reasserting himself over the hurdling division.

The 2023 Champion Hurdle winner has now enjoyed two successful racecourse gallops – the other was at Worcester recently, in secret – and he has undergone extensive tests to check everything from his eyesight to his legs.

A recent trip to Mandown gallops in Lambourn to jump several small obstacles has also been part of his preparations, with Henderson keen to drill as much work into the eight-year-old before his first run of the season.

A trip to Kempton first to school over hurdles had been under consideration, but clerk of the course Barney Clifford has gifted Henderson the use of some of the obstacles at his Seven Barrows base, and that final piece of work is likely to take place towards the end of the week.

Henderson’s job of bringing him back is all but done. He just has to go and do it now.