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Henry De Bromhead is getting very tetchy and defensive on Luck on Sunday about the relative merits of Honeysuckle and Constitution Hill. Great TV!
Aside from any question of ability, CH also has the priceless advantage of being three years younger than Honeysuckle.
Over the last 40 years, 6yo winners of the Champion Hurdle lead 9yo winners by 14 – 3.
Btw, Jonjo has a 4-y-old half brother to Constitution Hill by Flemensfirth, unraced to date, bought for just 60,000 euros last year. Wonder what he’d make now?
Constitution Hill is by Le Bresil, who stayed 1m7f in the mud on the Flat and had form at around 2m4f in the Auteuil quagmire, out of a winning 2m hurdler who is related to a Point winner.
His pedigree screams 2m4f over Jumps in deep mud to me.
And having finished second in an Irish Point over 3m, he sluiced through the Heavy up the testing straight at Sandown Park to romp home in the 2m Tolworth.
None of that entitled him to show the speed he did over 2m at Cheltenham, breaking the course record, being 5.78 seconds quicker than the Champion Hurdle winner and leaving Nicky Henderson speechless that anything else in his yard could crucify Jonbon by 22 lengths.
To paraphrase Damon Runyon, “if Constitution Hill isn’t a great horse, he will do until a great horse comes along.”
In a modern sea of superlatives, where the labels “great” and “superstar” are chucked around by the media like confetti, when an actual one materialises they can’t see the wood for the trees.
This horse isn’t one of many.
He’s the one.
Night Nurse, Monksfield and Istabraq reincarnate.
Best hurdler I’ve seen in 20 years.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"Punchestown appears to be on the agenda but I would prefer it if he ran at Aintree instead. Then put away and trained like a serious Champion Hurdle contender next season, with either or both of Newcastle and Kempton as targets. Then, given his obvious liking for Sandown, using the race there in February as a final prep run.
I’d love to see CH thump Honeysuckle to prevent her from possibly beating Altior’s record of 19 straight wins. On the flip side, CH could be the one to beat it
I can’t imagine the cautious Henderson is too enamoured by Michael Buckleys wonderful enthusiasm for a shot at Punchestown.
BUY THE SUN
De Bromhead is clearly annoyed by Matt Chapman’s comments about Honeysuckle beating the same old horses and in receipt of 7 lbs. After the race was over, he was interviewed by Tom Stanley on RTV and had a go at Chapman.
I do not think that reflected particularly well on him. He had just trained a horse who had won her second Champion Hurdle. He should have just enjoyed the moment but all he could think of doing was criticising a TV presenter.
Chapman is not everyone’s cup of tea. He can be attention seeking and boorish. But he is entitled to his opinion and it is one a lot of people recognise as valid. Not sure why it should bug De Bromhead so much but it clearly does.
I think that did inform his tetchy interview with Luck yesterday. He also knows that on the figures at least, Constitution Hill has the beating of Honeysuckle.
Does it matter if he does? Honeysuckle has had a great career no matter what happens from now on. She and Rachael Blackmore have made a great connection with the racing public. De Bromhead ought to focus on that rather than being preoccupied with anything Matt Chapman said.
A rare disagree with you CAS. Honeysuckle has stuffed all and sundry for years, it would annoy me if I was connected to her. Everyone was all of a sudden rubbishing her to praise up a top Novice, with plenty to prove (in comparison).
Its called the Champion Hurdle for a reason (hopefully). Honeysuckle has the crown, is unbeaten, and has walloped better animals than Consitution Hill ever has to date.
BUY THE SUN
That might be true, TTC. But if so, I do not get why De Bromhead would let just one person’s remarks bother him so much. He might think Chapman is an idiot but there is freedom of speech and that means you sometimes hear things you do not like.
I get the impression De Bromhead is a prickly character. I would not want to get on the wrong side of him.
Its not just one person CAS. This thread alone proves that the majority are willing to ignore Honeysuckle and assume its a foregone conclusion an unbeaten Dual-Champion winner would be stuffed by a thrice raced Supreme winner.
It would annoy me I must admit. Sport is emotional.
BUY THE SUN
Fair enough TTC. But I still think De Bromhead has over reacted to Chapman. When he was talking to Luck yesterday, it was all very polite and a little bit dull but then De Bromhead became quite tetchy from almost out of nowhere.
Made for better TV than a generic answer or two though I bet (haven’t seen it). So I am all in favour.
BUY THE SUN
“Honeysuckle has stuffed all and sundry for years, it would annoy me if I was connected to her. Everyone was all of a sudden rubbishing her to praise up a top Novice, with plenty to prove (in comparison).”
I think this is what it comes down to, those of us who are now convinced CH is the second coming don’t believe the horse has anything left to prove (myself anyway). I understand the logic behind a novice having to perform in open company to prove itself, but imo when a horse performs the way CH did in the supreme, and has the time figures to back it up – especially considering Honeysuckle’s win was just an hour or so later giving us a good time comparison – I think the horse has shown us its ability and that ability is superior to Honeysuckles. The clock don’t lie!
The clock has been used too much in the Supreme/CH conversation for my liking. That isn’t to crab the performance of Constitution Hill even remotely, I do believe we witnessed a superstar in the making, although the races were run completely differently.
The Supreme was run at a breakneck gallop and was never relenting, whereas the Champion Hurdle was run a lot more slowly, particularly down the back where there was a significant breather got into the leader and it stacked the field up.
Constitution Hill is a star, although to compare the merits of both races/winners entirely on their winning times isn’t quite so clear cut.
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