Nicky Henderson: 'There was no way I was going to run on that ground'

Nicky Henderson offered a robust defence of the decision to withdraw Constitution Hill from the Coral Hurdle at Ascot due to the going, insisting the welfare of his star hurdler was at the centre of all of the decision making on Saturday.

Constitution Hill was one of a number of high-profile non-runners at Ascot – where the ground was officially good, good to soft in places – with many racegoers, pundits and punters lamenting the uncompetitive racing and small fields that remained, including a walkover in the 3m novice handicap chase.

However, Henderson had no regrets on Sunday about not allowing Constitution Hill to run in the 2m3½f Grade 2 after walking the course alongside stable jockey Nico de Boinville.

Instead, he was pondering whether the Grade 1 Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle or the Grade 2 Unibet International Hurdle at Cheltenham was the best option for Constitution Hill.

“I’m looking at Constitution Hill trotting around in front of me and he’s 100 per cent sound and well, and I can tell you that would not have been the case had he run at Ascot yesterday,” said Henderson. “It was good to firm – it’s as simple as that.

“I wouldn’t ever take a chance on that ground with a horse like him – he’s a horse of a lifetime, an incredibly special horse. I wouldn’t ever think of working him on that ground so I would never run him on it.”

Jockey Nico de Boinville and trainer Nicky Henderson inspecting the ground before taking out Constitution Hill at Ascot on SaturdayCredit: Edward Whitaker

Henderson also hit back at criticism he was being too cautious with Constitution Hill, and that the prevailing going at Ascot should have been suitable for a National Hunt horse to have been running on in mid-November.

“I don’t understand why people think we deliberately wouldn’t want to run, we were desperate to, but my job is to look after my horse and there was no way I was going to run on that ground,” he said. “I wasn’t the only one to think that about the ground yesterday.

“Lots of people walked the course, lots of trainers and jockeys, and they came to the same decision. Then there were others – sat at home or miles away – saying how the ground was perfect and that we should be running; how would they know? They haven’t walked the whole course like we did, some of them probably never have walked a course.”

He added: “Somebody said to me this morning that these horses don’t win races by standing in their boxes. I will tell anyone that if we had run this horse yesterday he could be standing in his box for a long time because he could have done himself a lot of damage.”

Where next for Constitution Hill?

Having bypassed Ascot, Constitution Hill is likely to have his next outing at Newcastle – where he would being taking on stablemate and former Champion Hurdle winner Epatante – or at Cheltenham, with the Gerry Feilden Hurdle, run this year as the Coral Bet Bundles Intermediate Handicap Hurdle, ruled out as an option.

“We’ve thought long and hard about it,” said the trainer. “We had thought about the Gerry Feilden at Newbury next week but I don’t think we’ll do that, so it’ll be a toss up between Newcastle for the Fighting Fifth or the International Hurdle at Cheltenham next month.

“We’ll have to monitor the ground at Newcastle because I saw they were watering there a few days ago. With Cheltenham, you’d have 19 days between that race and the Grade 1 in Ireland [Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown on December 29], so that could work. There’s the Haydock Champion Hurdle Trial in January too, so those are the options.”

Owned by Michael Buckley, Constitution Hill is the general 5-4 favourite for the Unibet Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

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