Nicky Henderson resists lure of Fontwell with Constitution Hill

Nicky Henderson is multi-tasking on a Monday morning where the temperature gauge is refusing to budge above zero. He’s organising staff and horses; talking to masses of the media about his Cheltenham Festival team; parading his stable stars; and answering his mobile phone.

The first caller is informed that “the world is here” and that he will ring back. It’s a slight exaggeration but understandable, with recording devices of all manner being thrust in his face.

He gets another call. It’s someone from Fontwell relaying that there are only five entries for the National Spirit Hurdle this weekend. Would he have anything suitable?

“Constitution Hill is free on Sunday afternoon,” he says, teasingly, and then gets back to spinning his other plates.

The path to regaining his Unibet Champion Hurdle crown will not include a trip to Sussex for Constitution Hill (Henderson always refers to him by his full name, suggesting he hasn’t got a nifty nickname). In fact, the six-time champion trainer is so happy with the wellbeing of the shiniest jewel in his Seven Barrows yard that even an away day gallop between now and March 11 is unlikely. 

Moments earlier, the unbeaten eight-year-old had dutifully stood before us in the company of Jonbon, hot favourite to win the BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase. The pair of them are wearing winners’ coats that Henderson derides, especially the colourful one sported by Jonbon, which resembles one of those bad away kits worn by football clubs.

The win machines rub noses and share carrots. Constitution Hill may have been tempted to remind Jonbon what happened when they met in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle three years ago but is too laid-back to be getting involved in any unsavoury heavyweight bragging.

It’s a privilege to witness the pair of them together, although it seems the carrots are a necessity, more than a mid-morning treat as Jonbon has some form of equine ADHD.

“He a fusspot and can’t keep still for two minutes,” Henderson says. “They’re completely different. One is switched off and the other is permanently switched on, but they’ve always been the same. They’re cheese and chalk.

“They live in their little house together over there, but that’s purely by coincidence. We built that thing over there for Constitution Hill this year, so he has his field and his house and his roof.”

Jonbon’s hyperactivity has not stopped him winning 17 of his 20 races and he will become Henderson’s highest earning horse should he triumph in the feature race on the second day of next month’s meeting. Douvan’s little brother has already nudged ahead of Sprinter Sacre, the two-time Champion Chase winner, and has Altior’s haul of £1,320,795 in his sights.

Jonbon is interested in the hoard of clicking cameras and cannot even keep his concentration long enough to properly munch his carrots. Several fall to the floor and the stable labrador, Margot, sniffs an opportunity before getting her marching orders. See below.

Meanwhile, Constitution Hill is looking about as relaxed as a racehorse ever could. His placid demeanour masks his explosive nature on the racecourse, when his combination of speed and electric jumping have made him invincible.

“He would stand still for two days,” Henderson suggests. “I could tie him up to that telegraph pole and come and get him back in the morning, he’d be fine. In his retirement, he’s going to stay here, and we’re going to sell rides on him for a tenner!”

A tenner for a horse who is ten out of ten in every respect, including his record under Rules. His astounding 22-length success in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle three years ago was a precursor to him barely leaving the bridle in the Champion Hurdle 12 months later. And after some well-documented health issues, he returned from a year off to win a third Christmas Hurdle at Kempton before landing the Unibet Hurdle in a canter back at Cheltenham last time.

“It means a lot to us that people love him,” Henderson says. “We just look after him, we’re the curator of something that is a bit special and so’s the other fella (Jonbon).”

A lot of trainers decline to comment on the potential opposition, but Henderson, with 73 Festival winers already banked, seems to relish the competition and the anticipation of what is to come. He is a racing fan, just like me and you. 

“The 'Willie Mullins Racing Festival' (Dublin Racing Festival) didn’t tell us everything because those two (State Man and Lossiemouth) were going very hard that day,” he says. “It would have been fascinating to know what the end product would have been.

“It’s left more questions than answers, obviously, because one of them was going to get beaten. Where would that have left the market and the whole world – what would everybody have been thinking?

“Unless they’d dead-heated one of them was no longer going to be Willie’s number one whatever happened, so now it’s inconclusive. We didn’t know what sort of Lossiemouth was going to come up in Dublin compared to Kempton. That was anybody’s guess, so they’re both still there in the wings for us to see if we can keep them at bay.”

Asked what Brighterdaysahead could bring to the equation, he added: “You’re certainly going to get the pace. The gallop will be on, one would imagine. It’s what she’s always done. It will be fascinating, but we won’t have to worry about getting run away with halfway up the hill, will we?

“The one good thing is that he (Constitution Hill) can travel off any pace. That pace that Lossiemouth found difficult at Kempton was of no worry to him. He can go that fast. He can travel at a very, very high speed. He has got bags of speed.

“I’m not saying they can go as fast as they like as that’s just sounding contemptuous. They will go hard but I think his weapon is that he can hold that.”

Constitution Hill also has eight flights over hurdles to negotiate and has pushed the boundaries at times with his extravagant leaping.

He stood off the final flight an alarmingly long way when landing his Champion Hurdle, and did similar at the fourth on his return at Kempton. And then came that bungle at the final flight back at Cheltenham last time.

“In the Champion Hurdle he went to the last and did something relatively daft,” Henderson reflects. “He took off so far away that he was in the air sort of saying “ahh, I’m not going to get there” and then lifted in the air. Basically, you have to be an aeroplane to do that.

“You can only do that if you’re on a fresh horse. A tired horse cannot do that, and a tired horse probably would have fallen the other day. That’s the only reason you get away with it, but I’d rather he didn’t do it again.”

Theatre is guaranteed at the Festival, just like when Henderson gained the first of his 73 victories at the meeting 40 years ago via See You Then in the Champion Hurdle. 

Most assumed that race was going to be a formality for the brilliant Browne’s Gazette, who went off at 4-6. See You Then was a 16-1 chance, but Henderson had the magician John Francome on his side. Well, he did up until about half an hour before the race.

Henderson picks up the tale: “Johnny rode a horse called The Reject in the Arkle and got injured. He fell at the last and got his foot caught in the iron. The only person left in the weighing room was a guy I’d sacked about six times already. Steve [Smith-Eccles] and I had more marriages and divorces then you could ever imagine, but he was the only person in there without a ride, so there wasn’t much choice.”

Browne’s Gazette veered violently at the start, surrendering at least 20 lengths and any chance of victory. It was all the invitation that Smith-Eccles and See You Then required.

They would go on to win two more editions of the race, with See You Then among only five horses to be triple winners of the contest.

Henderson, 74, has been there, done that and got the T-shirt multiple times. He’s been part of the training ranks for more than half a century, after all, and has already forgotten more about racing than most of us will ever know about the sport.

But this game is no respecter of age, skill or wisdom. It can pull the rug away from the most experienced of operators.

That’s what happened to him this time last year, when instead of putting the final touches to a powerful Festival team, he suddenly found himself nursing numerous unhealthy horses.

Constitution Hill was among those left standing idle in his box when Cheltenham got under way and he would end up being represented by his smallest team this century. None of them won – his first blank since 2008 – and half of his 16 runners were pulled up.

“We’d always settle for one winner but if you get one winner on the first day you sort of get the bit between your teeth,” he said. “We found out how important that one win is last year because none is horrendous. You take nothing for granted.”

And with that, he’s ushered inside to conduct any number of one-to-one interviews with broadcasters.

He might not realise it, but there will be a sea of goodwill carrying him and his horses along at Cheltenham. Constitution Hill may not need any additional help.