CONSTITUTION Hill led home a one-two for Nicky Henderson with an extraordinary performance in the Grade 1 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Sent off the 9\4 joint-favourite for the festival opener, Nico de Boinville’s mount simply glided up the famous hill to account for stablemate Jonbon, with Willie Mullins’ Kilcruit well-beaten third.

Crashed out

The turning point of the Grade 1 was at the third-last flight, when the pace-setting Mullins-trained Dysart Dynamo crashed out, leaving the Henderson pair alone up front.

There was little between the duo going to two out but Constitution Hill (9-4 joint-favourite) was going the better and soon took the lead.

The five-year-old, owned by Michael Buckley, quickly put daylight between himself and Jonbon to score by 22 lengths.

No other horse got into the race, with Kilcruit staying on to take minor honours another two and a half lengths away, as Henderson won the Supreme for a fifth time.

Furious

De Boinville said: “I knew it was going to be fast and furious and in fairness he did it like a piece of work. I was so happy going to the last. He could be anything, I’m sure he’d jump a fence as well. He’s got so much scope.

“I didn’t really have a choice (to go for home when he did), he was travelling so well. They’ve gone a really hard gallop and he’s just picked the bridle up. I’m delighted for his owner Michael Buckley, he’ll be ecstatic.

“What a way to start the week, what a legend.”

"That was awesome," said Nicky Henderson. "I know what the second horse [Jonbon] is, so… I’d be very surprised if anything could have done that to Jonbon, so he must be extraordinary. The hype horse actually earlier on in the year was Jonbon, and then this fella woke up from his slumbers at home, and I stopped bothering Barry [Geraghty], asking him what this was he’d sent me, because we suddenly realised he was very good.

"He’s been very good, it was just how much he actually knew, because he’d only run in two hurdle races, with four runners in each. To go out there and go at that gallop - that’s the extraordinary thing, that he could travel so easily at that pace, and then pick it up. To find gears at the end of a headlong gallop like that is extraordinary."