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Oisin turns up under the influence and Constitution Hill jumps an imaginary hurdle and ends up on his arse again? 🤔
Glad what’s the odds Nicky is the first trainer to declare his horse a non runner on the all weather due to the rain …
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
In the past few days two horses have been killed in their first falls in career , CH 3 crashing falls in 4 runs . The connections need to ponder on this , realise how lucky they are the horse is still alive and if its really worth the risk over hurdles again.
Racing focuses on fatalities to runs , fatalities to falls would be an interesting stat for connections to work out the risk they are asking horse to make if he runs .Day 1 of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival Constitution Hill takes a fatal fall and the mainstream media headline is ‘Horse that kept falling killed at Cheltenham’ or Constitution Hill falls bringing down another horse fatally. How will that feel going into Days 2, 3 & 4?
Constitution Hill’s last 3 runs in the UK over padded hurdles have left him with form figures FFF (Steve Boow can use that in his Racing Post Spotlight comments).
Of course I would love him to romp home in March to prove us doubters wrong but on balance is it really worth the reputational risk and shouldn’t the horse with a clear issue with padded hurdles be protected from harming itself?
I agree with you, Astralcharmer: Constitution Hill should never run over hurdles again. The headlines on day one of the Cheltenham festival if anything were to happen would be, as you say, catastrophic for the sport.
But the fact that he can’t jump any more does not detract from his previous achievements – the absolutely top-class performances in 2022 and 2023 still happened – despite what some people try to argue.
Yep, BHA utterly useless or would already have removed the chance of such headlines by barring the horse from running over jumps:
Horse Who Hated Jumping Forced To Race And Dies In Fall
Rich Owner Sends Best Ever Horse To His Death
Wonderful Horse Killed By Greed
Champion Racehorse Sent To His Death By Top Trainer
Fourth Fall In A Row Kills Champion Racehorse
Take your pick of the above. The sport has exactly zero viable response to any of these. If this horse dies at Cheltenham or is badly injured the RSPCA would have a strong case for a criminal prosecution of Dusnhea, Henderson, and Buckley.
“The sport has exactly zero viable response to any of these.”
Not quite right: it wouldn’t be his fourth fall in a row. 😉
BHA fatality rates 2025
0.22 flat
0.47 Jumps .
Not sure how they drive that down further . Been some bad racehorses on memorial section who should not be racing , bar banning them its hard ask i reckon.“Not quite right: it wouldn’t be his fourth fall in a row”
It would be his 4th consecutive fall in the UK over padded hurdles should it be allowed to happen.
I know that conversation has been had a number of times and even the trainer has voiced his concern and he very nearly fell at the last in the International Hurdle when making an almost identical mistake. That would have made 4 falls in a row over padded hurdles. Coincidence? I don’t think it is.
Personally if they were going to persist over jumps he should be running in the Kingwell. You could at least then argue he’s never fallen going right handed
I agree Astralcharmer. The stats of Constitution Hill’s falls over white padded hurdles stands out like Jürgen Klopp’s teeth. The horse can still jump fine but the hurdles are affecting his judgement. Even The New Lion seems too distracted by them.
Constitution Hill won’t die from a fall because he knows how to fall now
Nicky said the other day that he didn’t rule out a return to hurdles for Constitution Hill after Southwell. That doesn’t sound like a horse that is going to be running in the Champion Hurdle. If they intended running in the Champion Hurdle he should surely be running in the Kingwell.
Greg Wood in “The Guardian”:
My eye was drawn to this paragraph:
“‘He’s had a confusing week,’ Henderson said on Friday. ‘He had schooling with Yogi on Monday, starting stalls and a gallop with Oisin [Murphy, who is booked to ride at Southwell] on Wednesday and Yogi is back again before the end of the week, so it’s jump, Flat, jump for him this week.'”
Right, because the one thing this visibly lacking in confidence horse really needs right now is to be confused.
Because a horse obviously knows that starting stalls are exclusively used for flat races.
Henderson really needs to think before he opens his mouth. Same as everyone else.
The final nails in the coffin of the hills career …
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
”Nicky said the other day that he didn’t rule out a return to hurdles for Constitution Hill after Southwell. That doesn’t sound like a horse that is going to be running in the Champion Hurdle.”
They had Yogi Breisner in schooling him twice last week so I’d say he’s definitely going to the Champion Hurdle if sound.
The horse must be confused as hell though. Jumps school beginning of the week then off for stalls tests then more jumps schooling at the end of the week.
I know Bresiner is highly rated but honestly, the horses issues are under race conditions. Nothing he does can truly prepare the horse for race day.
I agree 100% the horse should be in the Kingwell. I’d stick a set of cheekpieces on and a change of jockey is an absolute must. Nico has fallen too many times on him now so there’s just no chance he can be confident onboard which is exactly what the horse needs, reassuring.
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