2025 Champion Hurdle

[Carnage at Taunton]

Fcuk me! What a day.
Haven’t got a sausage on Conny but I’m praying he’s fit and well.

There’s two things I find a bit disconcerting:

1) he’s 2 weeks away from a grade 1, which is worth £115k in prize money, should he really be that far behind a horse who is also set to be out in a couple of weeks time to win a £5k novice chase??

2) why did Nicky say if CH isn’t right, he’ll run Gino - that’s not a chest banging, confident attitude that I would have liked to have seen and seems a bit defeatist IMO

Time will tell…

Imo we should all want him fit and well, horses as good as he is don’t come around that often, and would be a real shame if it ended like this.
For me he’s right up there with the best we’ve seen over hurdles, be great if I had a bit more evidence to back that up.

[darlojim]

I never said half cooked!

He could be 90-95% though by the time the race comes round, that's 11 days time. Nico said it brought him forward a bit again today and that he still has work to do in the coming week.

I'd say anything less than being absolutely spot on, is half cooked. Not fully fit - 95% fit - getting there ... Call it what you like

Imagine the jock on Sir Gino today gave a little bit of reign, I'd say there would be very worrying signs then.

[DenmanSacre]

Worlds gone mad when a racecourse gallop causes such wild reactions on both sides. If you backed him before today, you'll take some positives and vice versa. I'm just hoping he's near his best as it takes a rare horse that gives you the emotions CH gives when he's been at his brilliant best. Since I've been watching racing, there's only been 6 horses that gave me that feeling - Kauto Star, Denman, Sprinter Sacre, Frankel, Zarkava and Constitution Hill. Here's hoping he's back to his best.

[Guinness Village]

I’m struggling to make any sense of the gallop either visually or Hendo’s comments. But clearly someone feels that he stinks. I’ve never backed CH, just watch the spectacle.
anyway, looking forward to this weekend’s racing

[darlojim]

Worlds gone mad when a racecourse gallop causes such wild reactions on both sides. If you backed him before today, you'll take some positives and vice versa. I'm just hoping he's near his best as it takes a rare horse that gives you the emotions CH gives when he's been at his brilliant best. Since I've been watching racing, there's only been 6 horses that gave me that feeling - Kauto Star, Denman, Sprinter Sacre, Frankel, Zarkava and Constitution Hill. Here's hoping he's back to his best.

If you have backed him before today, what positive is there to take? Genuinely as I couldn't possibly see anything positive to take from that, other from the fact the horse is alive and has 4 legs.

[Eggs]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TJc...Communications

Well Nicky seems more than happy with it here. All smiles in this interview with Unibet. Is this not just a classic case of people seeing what they want to see. The grand master has always said from day one that he shows absolutely nothing until he gets on the track. He fronts up when he doesn't have to. Last season he gave a pretty much daily commentary on Constitution Hill's welfare when most trainers would hide behind the sofa and he didn't need to. He will have got wind of the twitterati today and has come out again and fronted up but this time the great man says he is happy. So if he is happy then i am happy. Be very interested to see if Hills do a 'Win today and at the festival' bet on Fighting Fifth day.

…Hills already have a Fighting Fifth/Christmas Hurdle/CH @ 3-1.

[DenmanSacre]

If you have backed him before today, what positive is there to take? Genuinely as I couldn't possibly see anything positive to take from that, other from the fact the horse is alive and has 4 legs.

Hendo and Nico were happy with him, he's completed the gallop, looked like he's bigger than we saw last year so you can see he needed the work, Sir Gino looked leaner and fitter to my eye and by all accounts is a good work horse, a morning gallop is nothing like a race etc etc etc

Negatives for some people would be that he hasn't cruised past Sir Gino but if that happened, they possibly haven't gone fast enough to give him the work he needed. If it was a longer gallop, would he have blown up early and finished miles behind?

I'm not one for backing horses that short months before Cheltenham and the Champion Hurdle I rarely have an antepost bet on.

As I said, I just hope he gets back to his best for the good of the sport. Much more important than having any money on him and without him, Willie will probably have the 1-2-3 in the Champion Hurdle.

[opatcho]

When did Mystical Power become a concern, a high 150 novice

thise 2m novices from last year where underwhelming

Ballyburn and Fact to file where beaten on his first runs, similar to galophin but not much questioning of the trainers prioritise

Con hill looked big today, confirmed by trainer and jockey that he needed that. Sir Gino looked match fit, likely due to him schooling and so came out earlier

if Con Hill runs in the fighting fifth, I’m confident he’ll be the on to be on come march

if they start messing about, and withdraw him, yeah…. game over

I’m confident they are bringing this up back up, slowly, after a scare. I’m good with that. Con Hill doesn’t need to be a 175+ match for horse to beat M-Power. But I’m sure the priority has shifted to “let’s make sure Con hill comes back, and do it in a manner which means we can keen him rolling for a full and compete season”

[Yosser]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls6A0BiDk-g&ab_channel=JSCCommunications

Michael Buckley interview

[BigChaang]

Worlds gone mad when a racecourse gallop causes such wild reactions on both sides. If you backed him before today, you'll take some positives and vice versa. I'm just hoping he's near his best as it takes a rare horse that gives you the emotions CH gives when he's been at his brilliant best. Since I've been watching racing, there's only been 6 horses that gave me that feeling - Kauto Star, Denman, Sprinter Sacre, Frankel, Zarkava and Constitution Hill. Here's hoping he's back to his best.

I agree with you Denman Sacre , Much Ado About Nothing for Me ... Yes i've backed him , so i might be a bit biased ...
But Really ... He hasn't raced for 11 month's , so I'm willing to give him a break ...

[darlojim]

Hendo and Nico were happy with him, he's completed the gallop, looked like he's bigger than we saw last year so you can see he needed the work, Sir Gino looked leaner and fitter to my eye and by all accounts is a good work horse, a morning gallop is nothing like a race etc etc etc

Hendo and Nico were happy with him - Ok fair enough, be a big fecking issue if they weren't though
He completed a racecourse gallop - ermm yeah ok tick in the box
looked like he needed the work - it was only 3 weeks or so ago he galloped at Newbury and 'felt fantastic'. He's 11 days out from a g1, he can't be bloody far off now?
Gino a good work horse - Are we forgetting Con hill used to gallop by himself as Nicky had nothing that could keep up with him? Remember what he did to Epatante at Kempton

Not having a go at you or out just pointing it out

[Carnage at Taunton]

Hendo and Nico were happy with him - Ok fair enough, be a big fecking issue if they weren't though
He completed a racecourse gallop - ermm yeah ok tick in the box
looked like he needed the work - it was only 3 weeks or so ago he galloped at Newbury and 'felt fantastic'. He's 11 days out from a g1, he can't be bloody far off now?
Gino a good work horse - Are we forgetting Con hill used to gallop by himself as Nicky had nothing that could keep up with him? Remember what he did to Epatante at Kempton

Not having a go at you or out just pointing it out

Yep, they were happy with him 3 weeks ago and happy with him today.
Lets hope they are happy with him after his work at the weekend and we then get to see the superstar in the FF.

As re Sir Gino, I suspect they have another real good one.
Really looking forward to seeing him this season.

[DenmanSacre]

Hendo and Nico were happy with him - Ok fair enough, be a big fecking issue if they weren't though
He completed a racecourse gallop - ermm yeah ok tick in the box
looked like he needed the work - it was only 3 weeks or so ago he galloped at Newbury and 'felt fantastic'. He's 11 days out from a g1, he can't be bloody far off now?
Gino a good work horse - Are we forgetting Con hill used to gallop by himself as Nicky had nothing that could keep up with him? Remember what he did to Epatante at Kempton

Not having a go at you or out just pointing it out

Some of my reply was firmly tongue in cheek - of course Nico and Hendo aren't going to not be happy with him and completing a gallop isn't a positive or negative.

I haven't got any money on CH or the others in the Champion Hurdle so I'm just hoping he's back at his best. Do I think he'll be able to hit a career best this year - I'd say I'd be pleasantly surprised if he can hit a career high rating after missing most of last season, but he may not need to anyway to win the Champion Hurdle.

I'd ignore what Hendo says about his horses working the gallops off, catching pigeons, having to work on themself etc - didn't he say Altior was fast enough to win a Kings Stand (even if half joking).

[Exar Essay]

Were there any interviews before the gallop at all? It’d be interesting to know what the instructions were.

Looking at the gallops that went objectively well, to my eye, they were asked to cruise to the 2f pole then quicken to the line. Regents stroll looks to be a textbook gallop.

Sir Gino didn’t appear to be asked for anything. Nico seems to get to work on Con Hill but his mount makes no impression. And Constitution Hill looks laboured. That’s what I see anyway.

I understand that maybe they have left a bit of condition on him. I also understand that we don’t know precisely where he is in his work. But we do know he’s meant to race in 10 days. And that didn’t look like a 180 horse with a race in 10 days.

Look at his previous season openers. He’s run 10lb or so below his best, but hasn’t left second gear. He’d struggle to beat Rubaud on that showing in my opinion.

I think Buckley’s interview is quite sanguine too. As was the video posted on twitter showing the debrief immediately after the gallop. I don’t get a good impression.

Nicky is great at telling us if there’s an issue. But he’s not compelled to tell us exactly how the horse is fairing.

I’m not saying he won’t be in the right place come March, but I don’t believe he’s where they want him ahead of the Fighting Fifth.

[Lobos]

I'd imagine that they will have a serious rethink about sending Sir Gino chasing if they felt that today's workout was completely adequate for Constitution Hill or at least put the decision on hold for a bit longer. I'd be very surprised if he were to take up his chasing entry now.