Champion Hurdle becoming game of Grandmother’s Footsteps

Rarely has a race seemed as consequential as last Saturday’s Fighting Fifth, but now the dust has settled in the Unibet Champion Hurdle market fewer things have changed than I imagined. Yes, some players crept closer whilst our back was turned; others have ended up further away. None has conclusively wandered off to snaffle cupcakes off the trestle-table instead.

Even Constitution Hill is down but not out. “We’re not giving up, that’s for sure,” a combative Nicky Henderson told Nick Luck Daily podcast listeners on Monday. “And retirement is out of the question as far as I’m concerned and I think Michael [Buckley, his owner] would agree . . . we’ve got an eight-year-old in his prime.

“I’m certainly not going to promise you he’ll never jump a hurdle again because that’s not the case. He will. And we’ll be working on it, as we have the last six months.”

In the short term, however, it appears likeliest that a Flat campaign will be preferred by the Seven Barrows team but they’re going to mull over that decision for another week or so rather than making any sudden moves.

“The one thing I wouldn’t rule out is giving him a run on the Flat and just see where he belongs,” Henderson added. “He’s such a high-class horse. You might find there are crazy things he can do under the other code . . . He’s never seen a starting stall in his life, so I don’t know why I’m thinking that but it’s amongst the many different options.

“We’ve got to be very careful what we’re doing. It’s a public perception, isn’t it? And I think we have to be well aware of that. That if anything did happen, we would quite rightly probably be . . . there would be people of the opinion that we shouldn’t have done it and in which case you are putting your head on the chopping-block.”

Like so many, I found it upsetting to watch this former champion fall for the third time in four starts. Writing about it now is to speak of something that is gone. Worse, intimations of his immortality will not resonate over the years as they should. His legacy will not speak appropriately of the great hurdler he undoubtedly was.

Conservative campaigning in his pomp followed by an unlucky series of health problems means he is likely to retire, whenever that moment finally comes, with only two truly great performances to his name – his juggernauting 22-length Supreme success in 2022 and his nine-length demolition of the (now injured) State Man in the following year’s Champion Hurdle. It is a measure of his brilliance that a career tally of eight Grade Ones does not do justice to Constitution Hill.

However, I have also slowly moved away from my reaction on Saturday that retirement is his best option. Whilst I don’t relish the prospect of a Flat campaign as others do, I must concede any squeamishness at watching him jog around Chelmsford in search of a handicap mark would be to prioritise my feelings over what might well be best for an equine athlete, bred for this pursuit. Retirement does not suit many such horses and, given he’s only eight, that’s a long time bored. Let’s hope he proves fleet enough to perform with pride in the Sagaro or the Ormonde.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the latest chapter in the story of Constitution Hill, or indeed his trainer, if there wasn’t an undercurrent of hearsay still washing around Saturday’s fall. It’s the unspoken reason for the tone of Henderson’s comments and his pugnacious demeanour in encounters with journalists since the weekend. This tells us what’s not being said is important.

“He has never put a foot wrong jumping in his whole preparation, not a foot. And his work has been exceptional. Hundreds of people have seen him in action on racecourses and here schooling,” he pointedly volunteered to Nick Luck.

“As I said it’s been faultless,” he later added. At another juncture, amid explaining why he is “categorical” that Constitution Hill “won’t run over fences”, he asserted, again unprompted: “He has not had a fall – over a fence, a hurdle or anything else.”

These protestations are manifestly in response to rumours heard by some on Friday and by others (including me) not until after Saturday’s race that the horse had either fallen or unseated Nico de Boinville whilst schooling in the days before his abortive Newcastle return. A burgeoning tide of social media has been lapping retrospectively at this story ever since.

So, Henderson is now repeatedly on the record saying the horse did not fall. He is yet to be asked on the record or in public whether “faultless” and “never put a foot wrong” includes not unseating. However, it is also fair to say a spectrum of semantics could be at play here because theoretically a jockey might be unseated in all manner of ways, some of which could involve their horse being neither faultless nor putting a foot wrong and others tending towards blamelessness. 

Speaking personally, in this specific instance I am disinclined to rake over the ashes of a once-brilliant champion’s career. It can do no good. It’s not as if Constitution Hill’s frailties were unknown to the betting public, no matter what Henderson’s extensive pre-race public relations might have sought to achieve. Those communications had been the same pre-Punchestown, too.

The decision to run at Newcastle might be viewed in a different light were the rumoured context proven but this sport also relies on its professionals to make judgments every second of the day. Yet if something untoward happens whilst schooling a horse who’s crossed the Rubicon into public property, the call becomes less of a question of degree and more of a default obligation.

However – as devotees of the Road know only too well – it’s not as if his trainer would likely change a thing about his communications, either before or since the Fighting Fifth. (Word.) Of course, the subject can reasonably be raised directly with Henderson when the opportunity arises but, for me, it’s just not a sit-at-your-desk-pressing-redial-until-you’re-blocked job. Unless or until there is a next time, it feels like a retroactive ritual about a horse whose intended future is behind him.

If anything, were there any truth to this rumour, it was slow to make landfall because Seven Barrows hardly has a track record of being hermetically sealed. Some might suggest the tumbling price of Sir Gino in the Champion Hurdle market hours after his stablemate’s sad exit was an example of this phenomenon, but this was hardly splitting the atom.

As documented in this column and on our accompanying show, the idea has been on many fans’ minds for several weeks now and the trainer had already said hurdling was a potential option for that horse this season when speaking at Exeter just over a fortnight ago.

On Monday’s podcast, he said: “I need a race for him around about Christmas and I was thinking of the Desert Orchid . . But we’re not making any targets for Sir Gino . . . purely because I don’t want to have a deadline whereby, we’re aiming at something . . . We’re just going to let him take us to when he is ready rather than us forcing him to get ready for a day.

“Now, I won’t deny that it’s crossed my mind over the weekend that actually the obvious race to start him in – if you’re going to start over Christmas – would be the Christmas Hurdle. He’s not a novice any more over fences.If you went down the two-mile (chasing) road you’d be looking at the Clarence House and then the Champion Chase.

“But my goodness he’s such a great jumper over fences, is it a waste? I don’t know. It’s an idea. It’s a possibility, but no more.”

In the second column of this series, I considered whether 16-1 was a fair price for getting the treble up of Sir Gino retaining the ability displayed prior to his serious health scare, switching from his projected chasing campaign (a sphere in which he showed improved form) and then running in the Champion Hurdle. On balance, I felt it wasn’t. Longer odds were available to small money on the exchanges at the time, which no doubt many of you took. He’s now prohibitively priced at 5-1.

Having got her seasonal debut success safely in the bag in the Morgiana – a performance that pleased the number-crunchers more than the visual gals – Lossiemouth hardened into 6-4 favourite for the Champion Hurdle in some places after watching that dramatic edition of the Fighting Fifth from the comfort of her box in Closutton.

Is it too paradoxical to produce a one-sided, 19-length career-best success on paper and yet still be mildly underwhelming in Champion Hurdle terms? That’s essentially what Ruby Walsh argued on last week’s show and, since Newcastle’s post-race frenzy, she’s since eased to 2-1 in some places and appreciably longer on the exchanges.

Her widely vaunted stablemate Anzadam had been handed a disconcertingly tough ask to head there on his seasonal debut, third hurdling start for Willie Mullins and fifth overall. To my eyes, he performed predictably within the tacit contexts at play but we still learned new things.

I didn’t like his head carriage in the straight, nor the way he rolled left under pressure. Having jumped the final flight least well of the remaining trio, he had to be hard ridden to defy eight-year-old triple Grade Two winner Nemean Lion by a neck for second whilst winning mare Golden Ace readily asserted by a length and a half. Having been as short as 6-1 for the Champion Hurdle, he is now routinely accessible at 16-1 and even 20-1 in a place.

However, it’s worth noting his trainer was far more positive in conversation with Gary O’Brien on Racing TV the following day. “I’m hoping he’s another one that will improve and that puts him in the picture, the way the picture is now. It’s a bit murkier than it was this time yesterday,” Mullins said.

“Lossiemouth looks like she’s still in position. Golden Ace – she’s won the Champion Hurdle; she’s won the Fighting Fifth now. She looks decent. You might say she’s fortunate, but you can’t beat winning and she’s done that twice. Our fellow is not far off that and the benefit of that run puts him back into the picture, I think.”

Challenged by O’Brien to counter the idea that, with both Constitution Hill and The New Lion falling, if Anzadam is truly a Champion Hurdle pretender he should have been able to beat the survivors, the trainer added: “He had to improve 10lb or 12lb to win that and I thought he ran well enough.”

This would have been true had Constitution Hill pitched up in his 2024 Christmas Hurdle form, but he didn’t get further than the second. According to the official Anglo-Irish handicappers, Anzadam then had only a couple of pounds to find with The New Lion and Golden Ace (incorporating her 7lb mares’ allowance). Timeform reckoned it was more like 5lb-6lb. Whatever, he fell short for now.

Mullins’ most pertinent words were “the way the picture is now”. With both State Man and (probably) Constitution Hill out of the picture, any pretender’s task is about 5-6lb less onerous as things stand – unless you take Lossiemouth’s latest performance literally, in which case it’s about 1-2lb less onerous.

Anzadam finished a length-and-a-half behind the champion hurdler herself on his seasonal debut, is likely to improve for the run and therefore logically remains a player in his trainer’s eyes. Hard to argue with that; therefore, it’s hard to argue 16-1 isn’t an overreaction.

It’s hardly a vote of confidence in Lossiemouth either, mind. Whilst Mullins is clearly more inclined to chance his arm with Anzadam now he’s rising six, the ineluctable truth remains that the mare will still run in the Festival race she’s most likely to win. She’s the one with options and I’d say which one she takes will likely come down what the same two horses I identified in my first column achieve in the coming nine weeks.

The first remains The New Lion, despite his lairy behaviour when left in the lead from the second flight at Newcastle and his two-out tumble. Somebody needs to tell him he doesn’t need to match Constitution Hill and State Man in all departments.

We’ve learnt this young horse needs greater management, at least in the short term, than previously thought as he palpably did not enjoy making his own running – unavoidable though this was for Harry Skelton on this occasion – and even shaped to run out at the fourth flight. From the point on, his pilot presented him at his obstacles well away from the exits, but he drifted left on the approach in response. This contributed to him stepping at the penultimate hurdle and falling.

Happily, trainer Dan Skelton reported at Haydock on Wednesday that The New Lion emerged from his tumble completely unscathed. Veterinary checks and routine physiotherapy treatment have revealed that he’s neither stiff nor sore, as you might expect.

“We got away with it, obviously. He’s OK. But we also didn’t get away with the fact that he can be over-brave at his jumps,” the trainer told Peter Naughton on Racing TV.

“Two out at Cheltenham, [he was] very flat, very low; the last at Cheltenham, he only just made it. We saw on the Tuesday State Man not quite make it and unfortunately on Saturday at Newcastle it was our turn to not quite make it. He left a leg down, which is a dangerous thing to do for them.

“He is an intelligent horse. I’d like to say that he’s a thinker and he’ll go home and learn from this. He’s a brave horse, so I don’t see him going back and not facing those hurdles as aggressively as he has, but hopefully he’s a bit sharper on his feet.

“But I don’t want to distract from the fact he was probably going the fastest he has ever gone in his life, and I think that’s probably what led to it. Rather than indecision I think it was speed. But they’re there to be jumped . . . 

“One thing I’m very, very happy with on Saturday, which is the one thing I wanted to see more than anything, was how he coped with two miles. And it’s quite obvious, at least to me and everyone connected with the horse, that two miles we’re very, very happy with.”

So, Skelton is content that The New Lion has the pace for the Champion Hurdle but just needs not to rush his jumping at speed. As the trainer said, this tumble was a result of the fine margins discussed on last week’s Road show and was also on display at the last in the back straight at Newcastle. Needing to be ridden a certain way is a chink in his armour, too, but not necessarily an insurmountable one.

Ruby Walsh has mentioned many times in the past that many horses need such management from the saddle, noting that the mighty Denman couldn’t be relied upon to pass the wing of a fences without someone up top to concentrate his mind.

The other question – which I’ll put to Ruby on tonight's show – is would The New Lion definitely have beaten Golden Ace at Newcastle? I think it would have been a race because her rider Lorcan Williams had not yet made his move when a second rival fell.

“At Cheltenham when Constitution Hill came down again, he made such an impact on us that day that I felt I had to nurse her back into the race,” he told Sky Sports Racing at Newcastle. “Today, she travelled with zest, she jumped fantastically.

“I was just very comfortable the whole way. We were lengthening as we came into the straight, I always felt that I had Harry [Skelton, on The New Lion] a little bit covered and when Paul [Townend, on Anzadam] sort of came to us, he just carried us a bit more. In all fairness to her, when hands-and-heels-ed her, her ears were flicking. She had a little bit left as well.” 

For the second time in a now much-decorated career, the drama surrounding more celebrated rivals has overshadowed what Golden Ace has achieved. As her rightfully proud owner Ian Popham said on Sky Sports Racing on Saturday: “She’s just a serious horse and, quite frankly, one of the best in the country.”

He’s spot on. Few British-trained horses are credibly rated above her over hurdles. Make that just three if you factor in her 7lb mares’ allowance but still (implausibly) count Constitution Hill. Yet she’s still 14-1. As was pointed out to me by betting and trends analyst Paul Jones before the Fighting Fifth on Saturday, her measure is less than five lengths inferior to State Man – and for this lot, that’s quite a high bar.

Popham can take a great deal of credit for Golden Ace’s achievements His front-foot attitude to campaigning has now bagged two open Grade Ones after he persuaded trainer Jeremy Scott to run the mare on Saturday despite still-apparent vestiges of the snotty nose that saw her drastically underperform on seasonal debut at Wetherby. It also brought Scott his first winner since April.

Both Williams and Scott also believe Golden Ace’s jumping has improved since last season. She certainly sealed victory at the last at Newcastle with a fine-margin jump of her own, glorious in its technique.

“When you see her jumping the last like she did, it’s a bit scary, as she does not get any height at all but she snaps her front legs up and wastes no time,” admitted Scott. “I think it is that which has improved the most. She actually travelled really well on Saturday, but it was her slickest round of jumping.

“I’ve always been convinced that she stays very well, but last season we lost quite a lot of speed. I think we’ve gained that back again now. She’s better than we had her last year.”

There seems now to be a difference of opinion between trainer and owner about what this mare should do next. Scott had planned to take in the International-You-Mean-The-Bula at Cheltenham in January and then the Champion but now thinks the Christmas Hurdle is “worth looking at”.

“While I’m not sure Kempton would be her ideal track, I don’t know of too many others who are going there,” he said. “I’ve seen Sir Gino mentioned, but if I thought that was a relatively soft target we could run there and forget about the International.”

Someone should tell him Popham said: “I quite fancy going over to Ireland and giving it to them in their back garden.” Whether that fighting talk meant the Irish Champion Hurdle in February (I hope so) or back to Punchestown in April, I’m not sure. But all power to him. It would be interesting to see her to head-to-head with Lossiemouth over two miles pre-Festival. That could be consequential, to say the least, so perhaps there may yet be a third player in the grey mare’s Cheltenham destiny.

However, the second influencer I was thinking about is William Munny, above, whom I tipped last week at 12/1 (or a widely available 10-1 if you couldn’t get the price with Bet365). I’m very happy with that position but I’ll allow his trainer to reiterate the argument.

“We just thought there might be an opening in the division, and a few had questions to answer,” said Barry Connell. “As it has turned out State Man has gone down with a leg, Constitution Hill has his issues and then you had the novices stepping up from last year and I found it hard to see the disparity between The New Lion narrowly beating The Yellow Clay in the Turners and our form in the Supreme.

“The first three at Newcastle were all rated in the 150s and finished close together, while I’d have thought The New Lion might have been further clear when he came down. Would he have won? I don’t know, but I don’t think his rating would have increased.

“Where does that leave us? The standard-bearer at the moment is Lossiemouth and her best form is over two and a half, but she has run well over two miles and is entitled to be favourite. There’s now chat of Sir Gino being rerouted. It is wide open . . . 

“Our guy is like all the novices – he has to make the step up. It was unfortunate we had to miss the Morgiana with a minor thing, but he’s on track for Leopardstown (the December Hurdle). Given we missed a run he might need this at Christmas, but then we’ve the Dublin Racing Festival (Irish Champion Hurdle) and Cheltenham. I’m happy with the decision we made to stay hurdling and his form is in the book. He’s a speed horse.”

I can’t fault his summary.

As for the other increasingly left-field players identified in the first column of this series, almost all have confirmed themselves as NPCs in this division. Irancy looked slow, preoccupied with hanging right and perhaps uncomfortable on ground a shade too soft for him in the Morgiana, so it’s now over to Frankie ‘Tight Lips’ Berry (© Final Furlong podcast) for his seasonal campaign.

Despite being beaten at 1-7 by (admittedly talented) stablemate Kappa Jy Pyke on chase debut at Thurles last week, it sounds as though the easily distracted Salvator Mundi – despite a regime of daily exercise, focussed mealtimes and a ban on social media for inmates at Closutton – will be sticking to fences.

Majborough – the most unlikely of those who initially featured towards the fore of the diasporic Champion Hurdle ante-post market – makes his seasonal return in the Hilly Way this Sunday at Cork and is currently vying with Il Etait Temps as the Closutton successor to the veteran Energumene in the two-mile chasing division (although one could end up going out in trip). Their stable companion and surprise Triumph Hurdle winner Poniros is yet to be entered over flights.

That leaves El Fabiolo. In answer to my question about what else you would do with a klutz like him, Mullins’ answer is: we missed the Strictly deadline this year, but we’ve entered him in Leopardstown’s December Hurdle at the Christmas Festival. Admittedly, he’s also in the Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase but he’s fallen in three of his last four starts (sound familiar?), so it might well be time to do something completely different with him, too.

Given he’s still 66-1 in a few places in the Champion Hurdle market, this engagement might have passed some by. Clearly, we’d need to blow the dust off his claims, but he was as good as Supreme runner-up Jonbon when both were novice hurdling in the shadow of the mountain that was Constitution Hill back in 2022. He was intrinsically capable of form 20lb better than that over fences in the subsequent two years but his longstanding harebrained approach to fences has not improved over time. Perhaps hurdles might prove a welcome change of focus?

To sign off, there could yet be further draftees into this division. According to Timeform ratings, two French raiders are currently operating at the kind of level that could spring a Gallic surprise.

It’s Win O’Clock, who recently won the Prix Renard Du Vivier for which Lulambawas fleetingly considered, is clearly an exciting young talent but trainers Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm then seemed intent on a traditional domestic spring campaign.

The other is Kingland, last seen winning that same prestigious four-year-old event in 2024 but since sidelined with a leg injury. However, his trainer François Nicolle sees him as a nascent Gold Cup prospect rather than a champion hurdler. I will get my French correspondent on the case. (You reading this, Alan Potts? Email incoming!)

I guess it isn’t impossible that Il Est Francais reverts to hurdles, at the least for a time to rekindle the flame, though whether it would be at this trip would be open for debate. Back at Closutton, the 2024 County Hurdle winner Absurde – also third last year off a mark of 146 – could again step back into this weakened division at short notice after his third attempt at the Melbourne Cup again fell short.

But the likelihood of last year’s County fourth, who finished less than a length behind from a 3lb lower mark, is for the birds. You might just say unlikely Breeders’ Cup Turf hero Ethical Diamond has bigger fish to fry.

Advised 28/11/25: William Munny at 12/1 (10/1 also acceptable) for the Unibet Champion Hurdle

I think we know how this goes by now . . .