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Equinties - what to do
BGP Capital
December 01, 2025
Gm Equinauts
Hendo was on with Nick Luck this morning and addressed questions regarding the future of CONSTITUTION HILL (they’re still none the wiser, but it’s not retirement!),
but it was also good to hear about potential star SIR GINO who could make a return to action at Christmas. That should be brilliant.
Let’s dive in!
HEADLINE ROUNDUP
WHAT TO DO
As if you didn’t realise already, the Grade 1 Fighting Fifth Hurdle was the main attraction on Saturday, and it simply had every thing you’d want in a race but the one ting every one wanted to see - CONSITUTION HILL to be back.
GOLDEN ACE, the Champion Hurdle heroine, won the prestigious Northern race instead, in what was almost a carbon copy of her race back in March.
Total madness (which is why this tweet tickled us).
CONSTITUTION HILL and THE NEW LION fell, and there is plenty to talk about from both incidents. Let’s start with the main man, CON HILL. Firstly, this is actually a sad thing to talk about. Whatever you feel about the horse, he is an animal that could have rewrote the history book. Instead, he has fallen three times in four runs, and he even has his trainer scratching his head and wiping tears away from his eyes.
Nicky looked heart broken on TV.
So, CONSTITUTION HILL has a big problem with hurdling. He either just doesn’t respect them or he’s lost his confidence and ends up second guessing them. Ruby Walsh’s analysis on ITV is pretty good, as it always is, and he pointed out that he simply lets his near fore rattle the top of the hurdle, which causes him to fall.
It’s as if the horse wanted to jump, and then halfway through, he loses his bottle and doesn’t want to anymore. As Daryl Jacob put it on Racing TV yesterday, he’s like a footballer who’s had a few bad knocks and now doesn’t want to go in for those hard tackles anymore.
And, look, we can’t offer any in-depth analysis about his performance because he only jumped two hurdles. What did we truly learn from that? He jumped the first well, he fell at the second. That’s it.
There are a few options to take with him going forward. You can either retire him (whih Nicky has said this morning will NOT happen), persist with hurdles, go over fences, or go to the Flat. So, literally everything is an option.
If he were ours? You can’t really send him over a hurdle again for the time being due to all of the things we’ve said above, and retiring him seems a bit far right now, so why not send him over a fence? This may seem mental to say, but surely fences will make him think more, and this could get him jumping better.
Henderson is clearly happy with everything in the engine room, even if the rumours are that he fell on Thursday during schooling, and he has schooled over small fences before. Unfortunately, he’s not this piece of racing royalty anymore that can be kept to hurdles for the rest of his career in order to win three or four Champion Hurdles. He’s a supremely talented horse who has got a large issue that needs to be resolved.
Nothing changes if nothing changes, so fences or the flat would seem like the most logical options. At least he can’t fall over on the Flat!
Let’s move onto THE NEW LION.
Was he beaten at the time of the fall? It’s hard to tell. ANZADAM travelled into the race on the bride, but he found nothing, and the proximity of NEMEAN LION to GOLDEN ACE and ANZADAM at the line gives you a fair indication on the level of the form.
THE NEW LION is a 2m4f winner, so he does find, but Skelton did say pre-race that he may come on for anything he did on Saturday, so that’s something to consider.
Honestly, it was always a bold move to stick to hurdles this season, especially with the type of horse he is. He doesn’t look to be an out-and-our speed horse at two, and that was kind of backed up on Saturday. He’s a strong stayer at the trip who would get/need further.
On Saturday, he potentially showed that he might struggle to jump with accuracy at a championship two-mile pace, but now you’ve committed him to hurdles this season, you’re a bit stuck if he can’t compete on the two-mile stage at Grade 1 level.
Maybe he can, and he does deserve another chance in the Christmas Hurdle, but if he’s not a Champion Hurdle horse, what do you do? Go to the National Spirit Hurdle over 2m3f in February, miss Cheltenham, and then go to the Aintree Hurdle over 2m4f?
Skelton has shown in the past that he’s happy to miss Cheltenham with his good ones (GREY DAWNING last year), and if JP agreed, then this could maybe work.
But he could still be a proper two-mile hurdler. He seemed to have a look at one hurdle before his fall, but apart from that, he was decent. It’s hard to make a full judgement on him because we didn’t get to see him in the key stage of the race.
Right, it’s probably worth putting in some quotes now from the relevant connections.
Nicky Henderson on CONSTITUTION HILL: "We're running out of options. I don't know if Kempton [the Christmas Hurdle on Boxing Day] is an option. Let's just let the dust settle and see what's happening. I couldn't tell you what we're going to do next right now. I don't know where to go next or what to do at the moment.
"We need to take a breath and be rational because it shakes you to bits. It's really sad. Can we go on asking him to do it? It doesn't seem fair on anybody. Poor Michael [Buckley, owner], I cried for him.
"Jumping fences isn't going to solve the problem, that I'm 100 per cent sure of. I couldn't be responsible for asking him to jump a fence. If something happened and he got hurt, that comes into it.
"I wouldn't be jesting if I said if there was a two-mile maiden on the Flat we could run there. Seriously, why not?
"I'm not saying the Ascot Gold Cup, but why not run him on the Flat? He's a very, very, very good horse, so it's very sad when you have a horse as good as that and it goes wrong."
And Dan Skelton said: "I think he would have won. That's only an opinion and there's no point expressing it because we didn't stand up. It's just frustrating for that to happen on his first start of the season.
"They were going so fast. It's two-mile championship speed, he left a leg down, he touched the top of the hurdle and that brought him down. That's that.
“We just have to learn. There was nothing wrong with everything else. I was happy with what I was seeing; he was picking up nicely. I have no concerns about the trip.
"But it's not ideal to be on the floor. We'll dust ourselves down, do plenty of jumping and he'll be back again; that's all you can do."
So, Henderson doesn’t like the idea of fences, and Skelton is actually pretty happy about the run in general, but not about the result, obviously.
Before we finish, there are just two more things to cover.
Firstly, let’s give a hand to GOLDEN ACE. She may not be the best hurdler in the division, but she’s won two Grade 1s, and she’s a proper mare. Fair play to connections for giving her a go in these top races, and they’ve been duly rewarded.
And secondly, what on earth do we make of the Champion Hurdle division now?
The market is as follows: LOSSIEMOUTH 7/4 (is she really a two-miler?), THE NEW LION 9/2 (questions to answer), SIR GINO 8/1 (Hendo has mentioned the Christmas Hurdle for him?), WILLIAM MUNNY 8/1 (the novice stepping into open class), CONSTITUTION HILL 10/1 (already covered), GOLDEN ACE 14/1 (is she good enough if all stay on their feet?), WODHOOH 16/1 (mares?), ANZADAM 16/1 (good enough?), BRIGHTERDAYSAHEAD 20/1 (fences), SALVATOR MUNDI 20/1 (come back from fences?), KARGESE 20/1 (fences or hurdles?), CELTIC DINO 25/1 (needs to step up from handicaps), and ALEXEI 25/1 (same thing).
That’s a pretty open division, which is great to see in some respects, but also a sad state of affairs based on what has happened in recent races.
WHAT TO DO v2
Rightly, there was a lot of eyes on Newbury and Newcastle on Saturday, but the card they had at Fairyhouse yesterday is worth reviewing, because it will have repercussions for the rest of the season. Let’s start with the big race, the Hatton’s Grace. Fair play, TEAHUPOO, you are a three-time winner of the race.
In that time, the horse has beaten HONEYSUCKLE, IMPAIRE ET PASSE, BALLYBURN, KLASSICAL DREAM, and SIRE DU BERLAIS. That’s a great list.
And yesterday, he really had to work to see off BALLYBURN who, to our eye, probably would have won with a clearer route. BALLYBURN was really intriguing pre-race, as he clearly showed an engine last season, it was his the fences getting in his way. Much like CONNY HILL and his hurdles debacle!
Yesterday, he looked like a staying hurdler on up, and we were intrigued to see what price he would be for the Stayers’. After all, he’s only had one run in open staying hurdling company. 8/1? 6/1? 5/1?
No, BALLYBURN is the ante-post favourite for the Stayers’ Hurdle at 2/1. It’s a bad price, but he is a nice prospect in the duration. We’re excited by him, but not at those odds.
As for TEAHUPOO, we didn’t learn anything new, other than the fact that he still sets a great standard in the division that will be hard to match.
Before the Hatton’s Grace, ROMEO COOLIO dotted up and looked like a nice horse in the Drinmore. What do you do with him in relation to Cheltenham?
Gordon Elliott said: "The one thing Jack said is he wouldn't be afraid to bring him back to two miles off a real fast pace, with the the way he jumps. But there's no decision that needs to be made today.
"Leopardstown is an option, everywhere is open, and we could end up at Kempton. I'll never forget when the boys [KTDA Racing, owners] came to me at the start, the one thing they said was they'd love to have a Champion Chase horse. Whether he's quick enough for that, I don't know, but we can dream in every direction."
So, maybe the Arkle is on his agenda. He was beaten comfortably by KOPEK in the Supreme, and DES BORDES has improved in the jumping department since. Yes, ROMEO COOLIO has also improved for a fence, but taking on a good KOPEK DES BORDES will be tricky. Still, it would be great to see him in an Arkle. They shouldn’t be too scared of the race, even if he may be best at 2m4f. If he doesn’t quite get there in an Arkle, come back to Aintree and go in the 2m4f race. After all, JANGO BAIE won the Arkle last year, and he’s certainly not a two-miler!
The final Elliott horse to mention is MANGE TOUT, who has been a big talking horse for a while, and yet, she didn’t go off favourite. Instead, NARCISO HAS did for Willie Mullins and the green and gold. Interesting race this. MANGE TOUT made a really nice move before the last, but NARCISO HAS didn’t go away. Mullins’ juvenile was really game, but maybe he needed it, and he does need to dust up on his jumping. That last jump cost him dearly, even if MANGE TOUT was going to go past anyway.
MANGE TOUT is pretty sharp, and Gordo thinks the world of her. These two juveniles set a nice standard, and much like MAJBOROUGH and KARGESE a few seasons ago, Mullins’ tend to run well first time out, and then they improve a tonne for their next start.
There’s a fair chance he could reverse the form at Christmas.
WEEKEND EYE-CATCHERS
LEADER IN THE PARK - SATURDAY 12.30 KEMPTON
A few of you may know that Ben Pauling has always thought the world of LEADER IN THE PARK, and he very, very nearly won at Newbury on Saturday.
BOOSTER BOB beat him, and he’s really not a bad horse, especially around Newbury. He always finds, and that’s what he did to get past LEADER IN THE PARK.
Pauling’s horse jumped really nicely all the way around, and he showed a good engine for his first run of the year. Pauling has outlined the Coral Trophy as a potential for him in the new year, and he could still be a very well-handicapped horse.
TALK THE TALK - SUNDAY 13.19 FAIRYHOUSE
This is a winner and not one that caught the eye in a losing position, granted, but there was something nice about TALK THE TALK in the two-mile Grade 3 hurdle at Fairyhouse yesterday. It was a pretty good race with MURCIA, a Grade 1 winner, and I’M SLIPPY, a promising Cork maiden hurdle winner in early November, setting the main standard.
He just travelled nicely, and went away like a good one. He slightly lost momentum at the final hurdle, but the way he picked up the bridle again was quite impressive.
Post-race, Sam Ewing said: “He’s a lovely horse. Once he settled, after he jumped the first, he got into a nice rhythm and it was all plain sailing really.
“I winged the second last and was kind of left there on my own but he’s very honest. He’ll improve plenty going forward.
“It was an OK maiden he won in Limerick but I think that was a big step forward today. He’s beaten proven horses, and other exciting horses in the field.”
He could be quite a nice one that may go under the radar. He will know whether the Pertemps Final is worth chancing, and if it is, he could be dangerous.
RISK ON
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