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I’ve said from his first fall and the mistake he made last fence when he did won on first run last season beating Lossiemouth. The padded hurdles where his undoing
As for running on the flat he will be 9yrs old next year many flat horse younger and got younger legs. The have left trying fences to late
I’d rather see him retire now then continue, if he is going keep falling like this one day he might not get away with itVF x
Connections seemed fixated on making him a Gold Cup horse. Once they decided he wouldn’t stay, they lost interest in chasing.
Constitution Hill was a great horse in 2022 and 2023. Unfortunately we never got to see if he could have been even greater still due to a combination of Henderson’s negative campaigning and then the horse going wrong. He hasn’t really been right since his blowout in the gallop at Kempton, which forced him to miss the Champion Hurdle in 2024.
OK, he won the Christmas Hurdle last season – but he had to work quite hard to beat Lossiemouth. He would have laughed at her in his prime.
“They have left trying fences to late”.
I am inclined to agree but wasn’t Faugheen about 11 when he went chasing? Although he hadn’t been falling all the time over hurdles.
I was just thinking of Faugheen but that was because he was too slow to win the champion hurdle by then and didn’t stay quite well enough to win the stayers. Not ever heard of a hurdler succeeding (or even trying) over fences late in life because it had become a disastrous chancy hurdler. Dysart Dynamo went over fences after his novice hurdling year to back him off because he was mental, but he stayed mental, took the same attitude to fences and took a couple of horrible falls.
If Constitution Hill does the same over fences as he does over hurdles now- last mind change of mind and putting down or trying to bank one, you could get a backbreaking somersault.“They have left trying fences to late”.
I think just two full seasons over hurdles inc novice year is maybe leaving it a bit too late for maximum effect in a lot of cases. Some exceptions like Gaelic Warrior. But he is…er… a special case. And the seasons were juvenile and 4-5 not 5/6 and 6/7yo
Henry Daly’s Mighty Man the more than useful staying hurdler jumped fences for the first time aged 9. Won 2 novice chases and then disappeared again. Remarkable he even returned after such a serious injury at Punchestown in 2007.
I know this is a CH thread but does anyone know what became of Mighty Man?
Sharjah won a grade 3 but wasn’t up to the big league
The crock Klassical Dream win a beginners easily then crocked himself again.Green, do we know anything about Nicky’s schooling/training methods? Are they similar to Willie’s? Who gets the call to jump alongside him when CH is schooled?
I think Willie schools them on the racecourse more or less and they don’t jump very much at home. Saw some video of CH popping over hurdles at home but there was nothing with him. Maybe that’s part of the problem. If he schools a lot at home, but alone or well spaced under perfect conditions, then maybe he never learned to get in amongst them and to do the fiddling and shortening you probably have to learn early if you’re unsighted , up somebody’s backside, getting the occasional little bump or two by something upsides. I don’t know maybe nobody does this, just a thought.
Read on Facebook h has been tried over fences at home and that it didn’t goto well. Nico said today jumping not the way to go someone is going to get seriously hurt, not sure if he was referring to the hurdles or fences though
VF x
Didn’t / couldn’t watch today.
Watched it later , after hearing he was okay.
The horse owes nobody anything.
He may improve his hurdling , with appropriate reschooling , but it is never going to be the way he was.
As he has lost that sublime advantage , he will never be the horse that he was.
It is not worth risking him anymore.
For his sake , please retire him before something terrible happens to him.
He deserves a happy retirement !.Astral charmer found this in search mighty man
The champion hurdler Mighty Man officially retired from racing due to a serious tendon injury sustained in April 2007 at the Punchestown Festival.
Initially, connections announced he was “highly unlikely” to race again and would enjoy a happy retirement in Leicestershire with his owners, Joss and Nicky Hanbury, following stem cell surgery.
However, in an unexpected turn, Mighty Man made a remarkable return to racing two years later. His comeback included a strong performance at his favored Aintree, where he finished close to the Stayers’ Hurdle winner Big Bucks in the Liverpool Hurdle. He then began a brief career in novice chasing, winning two races from two starts the following season, before disappearing from the racecourse again.
His original injury ultimately limited his career potential as a chaser, which many believed he was built for, and he did not achieve a Cheltenham Gold Cup win.
Mighty Man’s final retirement was not widely covered after his second disappearance, but he was confirmed to have retired with the Hanburys.VF x
if he’s still got a motor a go on flat won’t hurt but I think even connections know jumps is over , BHA if they are of sound mind won’t accept entries from him , he’s an absolute danger to all inc himself , but he can pick up some flat races listed imho as some those very average after the decent ones sold overseas .
A chaser came second in Melb Cup , he can beat the Ozzie staying snails if they gave that a go . Will need some runs on board first though .He mentioned the Ebor , that’s a golden ticket race .It’s sort of cocoa time and we will get to Constitution Hill in a moment but let’s focus our attention on the far more historically momentous Bunker Hill back in June 1775. Would have been summertime and the Redcoats presented themselves as the greatest professional all Blighty fighting outfit in the globe at that time – but were to routed and embarrassingly decimated by a group of untrained yankee hillbilly sharpshooters staked out in them thar hills. The Brits lost a miserable thousand men after three ‘ let’s show em ‘ horseback charges. It was only when the Yankee doodles ran out of ammo that the Anglos managed to restore order and pick a few off.- well 450 not going home souls – if you want a round number. Advice is – don’t ever take on the Hill. Times change and the British army nowadays is a bit deplete of answers and questions indeed and twiddling its trigger fingers and thumbs as the money pours in and the transformation starts.
Bunker Hill was the first birth pangs of the now hugely grown US of A fighting force that has the current capability to present some semblance of balance and world order. One might warn any boat people and any tree dwelling Venezuelans who might be reading this, to get their bins, paddles, and night glasses out.
The first time I saw the horse ‘ the hill’ was on prime time TV I remember going into a physical spasm on account of observing the most perfectly formed equine beast to ever set the racing mind racing and caused in me a kafkaesque transformation into something subhuman in the throes of riga mortis. It was early days in his history, but in a way and to reiterate I remember thinking I have never ever parked my peelers on such a perfectly honed equine shape. The shape won the ensuing horse race but I couldn’t tell you when that was or where. Sad to see this perfectly formed creature twiddling its hooves these days a mere shadow of its former self – but there you go – a mishap or two and things change – even go into reverse. Let’s face it, it can happen to each and everyone of us – even the clever jump ahead Marcus Aurelius’s of this world.
I am too sheep-like to address the Goat of racing hurdlers but cooly make a mention of Make a Stand who won 9 out of his 14 hurdle races all won in his inimitable style and he reportedly acted to like a gentleman at home – whatever that might imply.
He booted through his Champion hurdle in record time and pinged the last with energy to spare if memory serves.
Lived to a ripe old 28 horse years and was active in retirement enjoying a bit of the old showjumping. Nothing odd about that – In a similar vein I’ve tried a bit of yomping myself – but didn’t like the disapproving disappearing foot soldiers as I passed through them on the pavement. I confine myself these days to jumping the queue. It’s a lot safer by a yard and the creepy eyes can be dealt with by a cold unremitting stare.
Game on !
Jesus h Gamble were have sprung up from , have u been let out into the public again or do u manage to get out of the straight jacket and fault the wall
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
I am inclined to think retirement beckons. Henderson understanably looked shell shocked and defeated yesterday. I doubt his heart is in it to run him over hurdles anymore and it looks like chasing is a non-starter.
That only leaves the Flat, which Henderson mentioned. But is that really how they want to bow out?
It is only an assumption he could win anything worth winning on the Flat. There is no evidence he would be any good, especially at his age and a history of issues (which I am not convinced we have ever been told the whole truth about).
It is a game of opinions but personally I think he has no chance of winning anything like a valuable handicap or a Group race.
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