Henderson adamant Constitution Hill call was right one

Supreme winner was a late absentee on Saturday.

Nicky Henderson was on Sunday firmly standing by his decision to take Constitution Hill out of his intended engagement at Ascot.

The red-hot Champion Hurdle favourite was due to make his eagerly-awaited comeback in the Coral Hurdle, but rapidly drying ground led to the Seven Barrows trainer declaring him a non runner, a decision he says was ultimately “absolutely black and white”.

“Paul Nicholls quite rightly says horses don’t win races in their boxes, but if I’d run Constitution Hill on that ground yesterday (then) in my opinion he would have been in his box for a year, wounded,” he told Sky Sports Racing.

“If it was the same ground (at the Cheltenham Festival), no I wouldn’t (run). You’d run some, but there’s an awful lot that wouldn’t.

“Chris (Stickels, clerk of the course)was very good, I spoke to him when I came in off the course and I spoke to him Friday night with Alan King, who rang me yesterday (Saturday) morning to tell me what happened with his horses the day before. I’ll be very honest and say the ones I ran on Friday were thank God all right.

Constitution Hill did not take up his engagement at Ascot
Constitution Hill did not take up his engagement at Ascot (Steven Paston/PA)

“We walked the course again yesterday morning and it had dried out considerably from Friday, and quite considerably. Chris agreed with me and he said ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realise it would dry out as quickly as this’.

“There wasn’t an issue, it was absolutely black and white – you couldn’t risk him on it, and nor could Edwardstone and nor could L’Homme Presse. The people that have walked the courses and know the horses and have to accept the consequences of what happens when you run on that ground, there was no possible way we would have taken that chance.

“It would have been stupid, suicidal and in the interest of horse welfare we should have been banned for life if we had.

“I wanted to run the horse yesterday, that was the whole objective, this is where people get it wrong. I wanted to run.”

He went on: “It messes up our whole programme, we had planned on running yesterday which would take him nicely into the Christmas Hurdle. Epatante is going to the Fighting Fifth on Saturday and that would probably bring her into the Christmas Hurdle as well.

“From months ago we said we would run at Ascot. That was always the plan, he’d been trained for it.”

Henderson had been anxious at the start of the week, but rain on Tuesday and Wednesday seemed to have eased his fears.

He explained: “He was in tip-top form, the race was lovely – the rain came on Wednesday and that was a big relief because it was good to firm on Monday and that caused us a couple of sleepless nights. But the rain came, and I was talking to Chris the whole way through the week.

“The same thing had happened the last two weekends, at Newbury and Cheltenham. The rain came in the middle of the week and both courses were very confident we were going to go on to really lovely ground.

“I think it’s got to be something to do with that long, dry summer in that the rain is coming in, we’re all happy and then all of a sudden the ground goes from good to soft to good to good to firm – that was good to firm yesterday, make no mistake about that.

“It’s happened the last three weekends, we’ve had to take horses out of Cheltenham, we’ve had to take horses out of Newbury. We couldn’t run them. Did we do damage? Yes we did, and so did a lot of trainers.

“We cannot go on taking these chances. We’re damaging horses, these are the horses we want for the winter and if you run them on firm ground you won’t have them.”

Henderson must now decide on the next step for his Michael Buckley-owned gelding.

The Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle this Saturday is a possibility, but stablemate Epatante has long had that as her return point.

“He’s been out cantering this morning in case he goes to Newcastle, Epatante has been out this morning – she is going to Newcastle,” Henderson said.

“We had a long chat yesterday, we’ve got several options – the Fighting Fifth next weekend, (but) Newcastle were watering a week ago. That’s the way it is at the moment, life isn’t what it normally should be at this time of year. The horses are very important, they have to get out there. If we have to run them both, then we do.

“The alternative is to wait for the (Unibet) International (Hurdle) on December 10 (at Cheltenham), that would leave you 19 days, just short of three weeks, to the race in Ireland (Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown), that would be possible, or you wait to January 21 (Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock) as his follow-up race as you wouldn’t have time from the International to go to Kempton.

“So if he went to the International he either waits for Haydock on the 21st and then we find him another race. Sadly the Contenders Hurdle at Sandown has now been abandoned, but I think we always knew that was coming.”

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