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Wouldn’t he have to carry a penalty in both of them? Even Henderson realises a horse that can’t jump and has to give weight away is not going to win.
The Kingwell is going to be a four-runner contest at best. If CH isn’t trusted to run in that (and the other runners probably only in it to get their handicap marks down), how can he be trusted to run in a Champion where everyone is trying and the competition is real and tough?
If he were to fall again, I would assume that they would much rather roll the dice and it be in the Champion Hurdle itself rather than in the Kingwell.
At this stage the flat prep is undoubtedly the safest and best way to ensure that he actual runs in the Champion if that is the actual goal now and you must think that it is as you really couldn’t see the horse getting better (ability wise) as a 10 yr old next season and that is also assuming he can get over this jumping issue.
More likely you’ll see as we did in Ireland that’s he has more than jumping issues and just can’t do it anymore , I hope to God he runs badly at the Southwell Shitshow and this finally gets ended
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
There is some good news on the Southwell race, as CH should definitely bring home some prize money.
There’s a £25 award for the best turned out horse, and surely no judge is going to give that to anything else that turns up!
I doubt the £25 will cover Nicos laundry bill , those grass stains are really stubborn….
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
I doubt he would be up to winning the Cesarewitch. But even if he did, is that really what Henderson and Buckley want? A horse that was talked up about winning a Champion Hurdle and a Gold Cup and being one of the absolute all time greats, managing to win a staying handicap on the Flat? It would be embarrassing if they tried to spin that as a success.
At this stage Buckley will probably take whatever he can get, wouldn’t surprise me if they ended up going down the Cup route on the flat either.
Granted if you told him after his first Champion Hurdle win that this is where the horse would end up now, you never could have envisaged it at all but then they need to make the best of the cards they are currently holding and if that means a flat campaign then so be it.
It wasn’t embarrassing when Sea Pigeon won Flat races, or when the likes of Morley Street or Tiger Roll had a try. I see little difference for Constitution Hill. Sadly his aura of greatness is long tarnished already from the ugly images of all those falls.
As LD73 says, making the best of whatever situation you are in seems the best approach to take. If a Flat career doesn’t work out, there’s unlikely to be any real harm. The same cannot be said of persisting over hurdles.
“It wasn’t embarrassing when Sea Pigeon won Flat races, or when the likes of Morley Street or Tiger Roll had a try”.
They were all still winning good races under NH rules as well as running in the Flat. Constitution Hill is a horse that cannot jump and has now had to have a Flat race contrived for him as a last desperate roll of the dice. Not at all comparable.
Is he really going to start winning at a high level on the Flat at his age? His pedigree contains no Flat winners. In contrast, Sea Pigeon ran in the Derby.
There is no way there will be a “Flat career”. This is just a soft prep run to see how much ability he regains and if they could dare running him one more time over hurdles.
I hope the horse is confident enough to enter the starting stalls. Or for whatever reason they might switch to a Flag start to make sure he takes part.If it genuinely is a Flat race at Southwell, it will have to start from stalls. Otherwise the contrived race will be even more farcical.
Flat races can only be started with flip starts in exceptional circumstances. None of those apply at Southwell, so why should the rules be rewritten for him?
“It wasn’t embarrassing when Sea Pigeon won Flat races, or when the likes of Morley Street or Tiger Roll had a try”.
The word “try” shouldn’t be in the same sentence as “Tiger Roll” and “Flat”. He was so fat at Navan that time it was a surprise they could wedge him into the stalls that he waddled out of and then dandered around the back.
I agree the made-up Southwell race does not look like a precursor to a serious attempt at a Flat career. It looks far more likely to be geared around a possible Champion Hurdle attempt.
CAS, all you say may be true, but it still doesn’t persuade me against wanting them to try him a few times on the Flat. As I say, if it doesn’t work out it’s much lower risk than continuing over hurdles, and I’m not keen to pack the horse off into retirement just yet.
But even if he did, is that really what Henderson and Buckley want? A horse that was talked up about winning a Champion Hurdle and a Gold Cup and being one of the absolute all time greats, managing to win a staying handicap on the Flat? It would be embarrassing if they tried to spin that as a success.
That’s exactly my point. It would be embarrassing at least for someone like Michael Buckley.
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