When it comes to winning at the Cheltenham Festival, the end almost always justifies the means. It’s a fact of racing life that has probably consoled Nicky Henderson over the years when facing criticism about his supposed ultra-cautious approach to running plans.
There aren’t many upsides when your best horse is under the weather, but Constitution Hill’s present indisposition means Henderson gets temporary respite from flak about not running the outstanding Champion Hurdle winner enough.
A race at next week’s Cheltenham ‘Trials Day’ fixture had, in theory at least, been a possible target for Constitution Hill ahead of defending his championship crown in March. Henderson’s enthusiasm for the idea had looked tepid anyway, but a bad scope made the proposal academic.
Instead, the Englishman aims to have perhaps the best horse he’s ever trained in the pink for the week that matters, which means British jump racing’s greatest star will have had just a single race in 11 months prior to the Champion Hurdle.
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Circumstances have contributed to that. Constitution Hill’s intended comeback in last month’s Fighting Fifth at Newcastle was frozen off and Henderson opted to swerve the race when it was rescheduled for Sandown on a bog.
He waited for Kempton’s Christmas Hurdle which turned into a long odds-on romp that saw Constitution Hill barely break sweat. It was more exhibition than competition and it left much of the racing public clamouring for more chances to watch this exceptional talent in action.
That Henderson was largely unmoved prior to this week’s update on Constitution Hill’s wonky scope shouldn’t have surprised anyone. When it comes to targets for his best horses, he has always exhibited a sniper’s caution, and it is impossible to argue with the results.
Pre-Cheltenham circumspection has been Henderson’s modus operandi for years. Sometimes it has had little to do with choice. Flak fizzed around his ears throughout See You Then’s three-year reign in the Champion Hurdle from 1985-87. A superb engine compromised by a wonky chassis, See You Then’s physical fragility led to him being tagged ‘See You When’.
But who recalls these days how few races he ran in; instead, he is assured his slot in racing history as one of an elite handful of triple-Champion Hurdle winners.
That’s the thing when Cheltenham casts such an overarching shadow. Grousing about a lack of competition throughout the season prior to it has become as predictable as how such griping gets forgotten at the festival when all that matters – and is remembered – are the winners.
Henderson is hardly singular in preferring to slalom a prudent route to Cheltenham. As much of a self-fulfilling prophecy as it may well be, caution has become a byword for astute preparation, and not just in Britain.
The Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup is the €250,000 highlight of the upcoming Dublin Racing Festival. It is a natural fit for both Galopin Des Champs and Fastorslow. Except one might skip the race while Fastorslow could get a Cheltenham warm-up over two miles.
Such tiptoeing can be infuriating in the here and now. Too much of the season really does get turned into a massive prologue for a single week in March. There is little competitive sense to it. And yet it is the dubious dividend from having turned the festival into the be-all and end-all.
The pay-off is how Cheltenham captures wider public focus like no other racing event. The Grand National manages it for a single day but Cheltenham is an annual concentration of championship excellence that secures a popular reach most other sports can only dream of.
Criticising trainers such as Henderson of Willie Mullins for putting all their eggs into the Cheltenham basket, and supposedly allowing broader competitive concerns to take the hindmost, smacks of being brave with someone else’s horse.
Racing reaps what it sows by encouraging the Cheltenham Festival to be so all-consuming. Offer most owners, trainers, and jockeys a chance to swap umpteen regular winners for even just a shot at a single festival success and most would make the trade in a heartbeat.
It makes too much of the season too lopsided and having so many leading names competitively cotton-wooled does the sport no overall good. And just as this gets pointed out every winter, it also gets ignored once again in the spring when successful trainers get praised for their canny patience.
Constitution Hill might race only three times this season. Ideally, he would run more often and against much sterner opposition. Ultimately, though, he is judged on whether he wins the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. That is what’s remembered.
The practicalities of how best to pull it off is enough of a task for any trainer working in circumstances as they are rather than how they theoretically might be for the broader purpose of selling a sport whose brightest star shines so infrequently.
What’s seldom is wonderful is part of the festival’s appeal; it should be no surprise if it extends to its leading players.
Something for the Weekend
Given how freezing conditions are disrupting the weekend action, looking at Friday’s all-weather action at Dundalk could pay off where SPINNING WEB (5.00) might relish a first try at two miles in a handicap. A course winner in November over a mile and a half, the hurdles winner was runner up over the same trip last month and shapes as though he will stay further.
QUEEN REGENT (3.10) hasn’t looked straightforward in her career to date but applying first-time cheekpieces could do the trick in Saturday’s valuable fillies handicap at Lingfield. The Gosden runner is 4lbs better off with topweight Oh So Grand for just over a length on previous form and has an experience edge on Ryan Moore’s mount, Twirling.
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