Constitution Hill’s Champion Hurdle participation hinges on schooling session next week
Nicky Henderson will make a decision on Constitution Hill’s bid for Champion Hurdle redemption after a crucial schooling session on Wednesday or Thursday, with the veteran trainer revealing his star’s long-term future lies on the Flat after his impressive display at Southwell on Friday.
Constitution Hill is a best-priced 5-2 with the non-runner no bet concession for the Unibet-sponsored Champion Hurdle, and Henderson has continued to school the nine-year-old under the tutelage of former Great Britain eventing supremo Yogi Breisner, as he bids to banish the memory of three falls from his last four starts over hurdles.
Speaking at Kempton on Saturday, Henderson said he and owner Michael Buckley believe Constitution Hill’s future lies in high-class Flat contests following his victory at Southwell by nine and a half lengths, and that if they opt to go to the Cheltenham Festival it will almost certainly be the horse’s final start over hurdles.
However in typically frank form, Henderson described the decision whether or not to go back over hurdles with a horse who undoubtedly has the highest public profile since Tiger Roll as bearing “the cross of responsibility”.
Having given Constitution Hill a week off jumping practice in the run-up to Southwell, Henderson, Breisner and Nico de Boinville will return to the schooling ground in a few days’ time, with the trainer expecting to make public his and Buckley’s decision “before the weekend”.
Henderson said: “The schooling session will tell us a lot and he’s definitely changed his technique. Yogi’s got him putting a stride in and he’s been really, really good.
“Yogi says that in Nico he has the best horseman, and he’s as good as anybody he’s ever worked with.
“Yogi’s teaching Nico. It’s minute details and it’s fascinating. I appreciate the decision has to be made sooner or later, but there’s still time to go. It’ll be on Wednesday or Thursday.”
Henderson is well aware that, having gone a long way to proving that Constitution Hill is capable of running to a high level on the Flat, sending him to the Champion Hurdle carries a degree of reputational risk for the sport as a whole, for all the obvious upside that victory might bring.
“We’ve got hearts, I think,” said Henderson. “We’re not ruthless and that’s why we’re finding it so hard. It tugs at everything. I like the opinions, but it makes it harder.
“It’s frustrating but it’s seriously difficult. I know what Nico would do, I know what Oisin [Murphy] would do, but it’s not their call.”
Henderson has clearly been torn by the choices ahead of him, and said that the impressive nature of Constitution Hill’s victory at Southwell has only added to the degree of difficulty.
“It was terrific, you wouldn’t have dared that would happen,” said Henderson of both the race and the reaction from a bumper Southwell crowd as Murphy and Constitution Hill returned to the winner’s enclosure. “It’s shocked us a bit and probably muddied the waters as well.
“He has a future on the Flat racehorse. It’s a strange thing to be saying about a nine-year-old.”
Asked how he feels about the choice, Henderson added: “It depends which side of bed you get out of. One morning I get out of bed and think, ‘Come on, we’ve got to go and do this,’ and the next I think, ‘Don’t be so bloody stupid.’
“I can safely say that he and everybody did a hell of a lot for the sport last night. It was unbelievable and it’s been staggering even coming to Kempton today.
“We’ve got to bear this cross of responsibility. We owe that to racing and to everybody. It’s not me that’s wanting anything out of it.
“A lot of people would love to see him go to Cheltenham and do it, with a fraction saying, ‘No you shouldn’t.’ More importantly, in our mind is the fact that our responsibility is to racing as a whole, not to undo the good that’s been done.
“The sooner we make the decision, probably for my own sake and health, is probably a good idea.”
Henderson also said that stable jockey De Boinville will keep the ride, underlining that Breisner would consider a change of pilot at this stage of Constitution Hill’s jumping re-education as “suicide”.
Henderson has already turned his mind to what a Flat campaign might look like, with races over two miles at Musselburgh (April 4) and Sandown (May 28) coming into the equation.
“I think we nearly said to each other last night, if we did go to the Champion Hurdle, that would almost seriously be his last run over hurdles,” said Henderson of his post-race conversation with Buckley.
He added: “The Further Flight [now the Goliath Cup at Musselburgh], the Henry II in the spring and then races in the autumn rather than the summer would be the options.”
Courtesy of Racing Post
