TThe venerable Timeform organization used a well-chosen four-letter word to describe Constitution Hill’s performance in the Boodles Champion Hurdle at Punchestown in early May, when the top-rated hurdler of recent decades started as the odds-on favorite but finished fifth of the six runners. It was, according to the company’s post-race analysis, a “disturbingly tame display”.
Tame. Ouch. It’s not a word that could ever have been applied to the first twelve races of Constitution Hill’s career, which ranged from the thrilling, effortless brilliance of his first two seasons to the high drama of the crashes at Cheltenham and Aintree this year.
At Punchestown he traveled well enough to make three clean sheets, but when Nico de Boinville shook the reins Constitution Hill had nothing left to give. He ultimately trailed the winner by 27 lengths and was defeated as he completed for the first time in his career.
The greatest racehorses, by definition, have to fall further when they reach their peak, but few have ever fallen as far or as fast as Constitution Hill in the seven and a half weeks between the Cheltenham festival and Punchestown. He lined up for the Champion Hurdle on March 11 as the unbeaten winner of 10 races, including eight at Grade One level. By May 2, trailing all 27 lengths behind State Man in Ireland, he was a listless shadow of his former self.
It remains a disturbing sight before Constitution Hill returns to action in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on Saturday, but also an essential part of the story ahead of what promises to be the best hurdles race this side of Cheltenham 2026.
The deposed champion on the comeback trail takes on not one, but two young pretenders in Dan Skelton’s The New Lion, an impressive winner at Cheltenham in March, and unbeaten Anzadam, from Willie Mullins’ powerhouse stable in Ireland. The winner will almost certainly head out as favorite for the Champion Hurdle itself in the spring.
And if that winner turns out to be Constitution Hill, the stage will be set for one of the big festival showpieces next year, as Nicky Henderson, a trainer with plenty of experience in bringing champions back to the top, looks to do for Constitution Hill what he did for Sprinter Sacre ten years ago.
That horse, like Constitution Hill, had put together a 10-race unbeaten run before being held up with an irregular heartbeat in the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton in December 2013. He was away for more than a year, subsequently beaten in all three starts in the 2014-15 season, but remained unbeaten in four in 2015-16, including a memorable second success in the Champion Chase in March.
A similar story for Constitution Hill would arguably be an even greater achievement for a coach who has himself shown great resilience over nearly 50 years in the game. Henderson won his second National Hunt trainer’s title in 1987, the same year he guided the talented but vulnerable See You Then to his third Champion Hurdle victory. His third championship, after a quarter of a century of dominance by Martin Pipe and then Paul Nicholls, came only after 26 years.
So the script for a glorious final season of Constitution Hill’s career writes itself. It’s just waiting for its star to take center stage in Newcastle on Saturday and prove he still has what it takes.
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