Sandown Saturday

Unibet Tolworth Hurdle (Grade 1)

CONSTITUTION Hill was the horse everyone wanted to see at Sandown last Saturday, although, as I stood in the pouring rain by the paddock as he walked disinterestedly around, it occurred to me that all the people who had come to see him preferred to do so from under cover. No more than a dozen others dared the awful weather to catch a glimpse of Nicky Henderson’s latest superstar.

He doesn’t take the eye in the preliminaries, and spends most of his time at Seven Barrows fast asleep, if the missives are to be believed, but he has now shown that he can really turn it on when asked to race in earnest.

Nico de Boinville was prepared to let outsider Jetoile (Ryan Potter/Lorcan Williams) set a sensible tempo in the heavy ground, disputing second with Mr Glass (Paul Nicholls/Harry Cobden), with the keen-going Shallwehaveonemore, who was the best-backed of the 2/5 favourite’s rivals, held up last in the early stages.

The favourite went a clear second before the turn for home, and was clearly travelling much the best from that point; asked to go on before the penultimate flight.

He jumped that and the last superbly, and easily put a dozen lengths between himself at Jetoile, who kept on gamely for second, with Mr Glass toiling home another six and a half lengths behind them in third place.

Heavy ground makes for big margins, which are sometimes confused for spectacular performances, but this looked the real deal, and the steady pace meant that the placed horses were seeing the race out well enough, just nowhere near as well as the winner, who again showed that rare ability to quicken on bad ground.

Special talent

The wise guys will tell you he’s terrible value for the Supreme, and they might be right, but it takes something special to light up such a drab day, and Constitution Hill is that kind of special talent.

It was no surprise to hear Michael Buckley comparing him to the ill-fated The Proclamation, a horse both he and Nicky Henderson felt was destined for the very top only to fall with fatal consequences at Ascot in 1990.

Constitution Hill has been the subject of a rumour that Buckley may consider selling him (no prizes for guessing the suggested purchaser) with a view to avoiding a clash with Jonbon in the Supreme, but it seems to be widely accepted that his current owner stands to win more than the prize money for landing the Festival’s opening contest.

Subsequent comments by Nicky Henderson seem to pour cold water on the ide of him lining up for the Ballymore instead.

“I asked Nico if he thought Constitution Hill would go any further and he said ‘no’, so we’ll be sticking to two miles,” said Henderson, who isolating at home having tested positive for Covid-19. “

“Would Jonbon go further? I don’t know but nothing he’s done so far would suggest he needs to.

“Nico said he knew within 10 strides going to the start that the horse would be happy on the ground and that he was happy the entire way.

“He also said he couldn’t believe how far clear he was without even having to give the horse a click.”

Jetoile ran a fine race in second and is reported to be on course to run in the Betfair Hurdle next month.

He was raised 8lb to a mark of 133 for this run, and that would give him a very fair-looking weight in the Newbury feature.