Thursday thriller in the script from the horse with all the answers and the race with all the questions

There was a moment as the Champion Hurdle field prepared to swing for home at Cheltenham when Constitution Hill moved out of the realms of what can reasonably be expected of a top-class jumps horse. 

His 4-11 starting price was a record in the race's 96-year history, while his margin of victory might have approached Espoir D'Allen's mark of 15 lengths had Nico de Boinville persisted in any meaningful way up the run-in. 

But it was the way he travelled all over his rivals coming down the hill, the fleetness of foot he showed in getting from A to B at the third-last and again two out, that took the breath away. The reception he received walking back in front of the stands was a reflection of awe rather than love, as if the heart and brain was still processing what the eye had just witnessed.