CONSTITUTION Hill finished a creditable fifth to German raider Stingray in Milan on his first flat start on turf in the Group 2 Gran Premio del Jockey Club in Italy.

Nicky Henderson’s former champion hurdler had made a good start to his career on the level with a couple of all-weather wins at Southwell and Kempton earlier in the year, and was not disgraced in finishing fourth when stepped up to Group 3 level for the September Stakes on his latest outing.

With a revised handicap mark of 108 limiting options, the nine-year-old travelled across Europe for an intriguing Group 2 assignment at San Siro racecourse in the hands of Rossa Ryan.

For much of the mile-and-a-half contest, Constitution Hill was travelling well but towards the rear of the field, but he came under pressure from before the home turn and, racing up the inside of the track, could only stay on at the one pace, finishing upsides the William Haggas-trained multiple Group 1 winner Dubai Honour, losing fourth place by a nose.

Victory went to the impressive winner Stingray, a gelded son of Zarak who was making it a hat-trick of wins and won by two and a half lengths for trainer Marcel Weiss from Global Health and the Andrew Balding-trained Venetian Prince.

Nicky Henderson said afterwards: “Both Oisin [Murphy] and Ryan [Moore] have said don’t go further than a mile and a half and I think we could afford to come back on a trip too, especially on some slower ground.”

“We’re going to hunt down the Paris programme book. I think we’ll try to get him to run before the end of the year again on some proper soft ground.

“This was his first proper outing since Kempton, which was a prep for something. Overall, it’s been tremendous. He’s run with great credit and we’ll see where we go next.”