Hallelujah, he’s back. What we needed to take racing’s attention off the miseries of inadequate prize money, shrinking attendances and structural problems was a genuine superstar, and when Constitution Hill galloped elegantly and professionally to Boxing Day victory in Kempton Park’s Christmas Hurdle, over the formidable Irish mare Lossiemouth, that was precisely what we saw.
In the social-media age, every saloon bar grump’s six-pint mutterings seemingly qualify as expert opinion
Lossiemouth is trained by the legendary Willie Mullins. Her sex allowance gave her a 7lb advantage in the weights and she had already had a race to sharpen her up, while Nicky Henderson’s charge hadn’t run since he won the corresponding race the year before. In the social-media age, when every saloon bar grump’s six-pint mutterings seemingly qualify as expert opinion, Constitution Hill had been written off by many as a spent force in decline.
Like many of Henderson’s horses he hadn’t run at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival to defend his Champion Hurdle crown because the stable had been hit by a mystery bug. After a respiratory illness, he had undergone a wind operation. In the summer he had suffered from colic. After a lacklustre public gallop at Newbury, he had been pulled out of contesting Newcastle’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle, which he had won the year before, and two days later had walked out lame.
As good a judge as ex-jockey Paddy Brennan had publicly opined that Constitution Hill had no chance of beating the sleek, grey Lossiemouth. Some of us, though, had kept the faith. Two things had been forgotten: that Constitution Hill had never been beaten in nine races (eight of them Grade One contests), and that Nicky Henderson has won nine Champion Hurdles and that he collected three of those with See You Then. See You Then was not only a savage brute in his box: he had legs of glass which kept his racecourse appearances to a minimum. Nicky tells a splendid story of the morning after his final prep run at Haydock before the last of his Champion Hurdle victories. He couldn’t sleep for worry and went to See You Then’s box at 7 a.m. to check his bandaged legs. There, curled up uncomfortably in the manger, was vet Frank Mahon, who had come with the same idea, only to find that the people-eating See You Then wouldn’t let him out of the box.
Constitution Hill’s problems have never been on the same scale and Nicky and his highly intelligent stable jockey Nico de Boinville, a man who endures rather than encourages media attention, were confident three weeks ago that they had Constitution Hill back to his best. Nico let his own raw emotions show for once when he told TV interviewer Matt Chapman: ‘Paddy Brennan, you can shove your opinion up where the sun doesn’t shine.’
There is one other hero in the happily resumed Constitution Hill story: Michael Buckley, surely the owner of the year. The possessor of the highest-rated hurdler in the land, possibly the best ever seen, he has never for one moment let his frustrations show, nor demonstrated a shred of self pity. At every invitation he has expressed his total faith in the trainer whom he regards not only as a genius but a very good friend: ‘He’s a master trainer and he cares for his horses. That’s why so many of them have such a long career.’ However good the horse, he argues, there’s no point in running it unless it is fit to do its best. And he too is looking to a slap-up dinner out on Brennan.
The participation in the King George VI Chase, a race he has never won, of the J.P. McManus-owned Spillane’s Tower and Corbetts Cross reminded that ordinarily the owner of the year, as most years, would have had to be the remarkable McManus. Racing Post figures revealed recently that over the previous season he raced 113 horses in 385 races using 19 British trainers and 40 jockeys. In Ireland, to the benefit of 47 trainers and more than 50 jockeys he ran 196 horses in 688 races, winning 96. A happy new year to him and may there be many more of them.
Kempton’s racing was a reminder too that Ben Pauling, who won both the Kauto Star Novices Chase with Harry Redknapp’s The Jukebox Man and the opening novices handicap chase with Leader in the Park, has built a yard with strength in-depth, despite the blow of the Megsons taking away his best horses. Ben’s candid pre-race interviews are always worth listening to and he would also be my diplomat of the year. When previous no. 1 stable jockey Kielan Woods had enforced time off for overuse of the whip last season, no. 2 Ben Jones took his chances. He has since been given the top job and demonstrated his talents on both Kempton winners. The Jukebox Man gave him his first Grade One. But Kielan, who continues to ride the Megsons’ horses for other trainers, remains in the Pauling team and rode a top chase winner for the trainer Ben at Ascot the Saturday before.
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