Paddy Brennan got off the fence and paid for it at Kempton - but racing could do with more strong opinions like it

Boxing Day provided us with the late Christmas present we all wanted when Constitution Hill swept to victory over Lossiemouth.

It was a result that even overshadowed a terrific King George VI Chase and struck a chord with racing's casual audience more than any other. One of my group chats – in which racing's appearance as a topic of discussion is usually restricted to four days a year in March – latched on to Constitution Hill's comeback, but what became almost as big a talking point as the race itself was the spiky post-race comments of Nico de Boinville.

"Paddy Brennan, you can shove that where the sun don't shine," he blasted down the ITV microphone towards his former weighing room colleague, whose refusal to fence-sit in the run-up to the Christmas Hurdle had put a Seven Barrows-shaped target on his back.