Newcastle Saturday

Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle (Grade 1)

A WEEK on from his controversial withdrawal at Ascot, Constitution Hill was again provoking heated debate on social media, but this time the argument was whether it was premature to talk about him as potentially the best two-mile hurdler of all time after he had produced a flawless display of jumping to slam former champion Epatante (Nicky Henderson/Aidan Coleman) by a dozen lengths under a motionless Nico de Boinville.

Nicky Henderson’s gelding was gaining his first win outside novice company, but already looks the complete package, and despite a slow early pace he recorded the fastest time for the Fighting Fifth this century despite his rider being able to coast home.

It was a bit of a surprise that Constitution Hill was left to make his own running but he coped with that scenario well, and when he increased the pace before the home turn, the result was in very little doubt, and each hurdle took him further clear of toiling opposition, with Not So Sleepy (Hughie Morrison/Johnny Burke) two and a quarter lengths behind Epatante in third in a race where the placings barely changed after the drop of the flag.

Solid pace

One pity about the race is that Not So Sleepy didn’t assume his usual front-running role, as a solid pace would have set this race up even better for the winner to show all his talents.

That aside, it was a wonderful contest to watch despite the result being in little doubt from halfway, as Constitution Hill produced a sublime performance in which his quicksilver jumping left an indelible impression, and it’s hard to imagine any of the current crop of hurdlers getting him off the bridle on this form.

There can be little doubt that Constitution Hill, having yet to be tested under rules, will better his already lofty rating, putting Night Nurse’s longstanding record rating of 182 under threat, but before that happens and Michael Buckley’s superstar is afforded the honour of all-time-great, it bears remembering how the likes of Night Nurse and his rivals, Monksfield, Sea Pigeon and Bird’s Nest earned their ratings.

Constitution Hill is at least as talented as all of those mentioned above, and I expect that he will match or better Night Nurse’s record rating this season.

But if he pops up twice or three times a season to batter lesser rivals, then he will still lag behind such hall-of-famers, whose willingness to go through the pain barrier to achieve glory (I’m giving Bird’s Nest a pass on that one) mark them out as being the true champions they are rightly remembered as.

Rehearsal Chase

The Rehearsal Chase, now redefined as a premier handicap under new jumps classifications, saw Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase hero L’Homme Presse (Venetia Williams/Charlie Deutsch) make the perfect return and provide a double on the Newcastle card for Cheltenham Festival winners who had eschewed the drying turf at Ascot a week earlier.

Ascot’s loss was Newcastle’s gain, and an unexpected boon for racegoers in the north, although the 6/4 favourite had to escape an early scare when his normally bold and accurate jumping let him down at the sixth fence.

That was the only moment of concern for backers of L’Homme Presse, though, and he either led or disputed the lead thereafter, holding the late challenge of main market rival Into Overdrive (Mark Walford/Jamie Hamilton) a little more comfortably than the one-length margin would suggest. Happygolucky (Kim Bailey/David Bass) jumped well close-up and stayed on at one pace to finish third, four lengths adrift of the winner.

Conceding 26lb to such a progressive horse as Into Overdrive proves beyond much doubt that L’Homme Presse is a horse of Gold Cup class, and he was cut to 7/1 for the Festival on the back of this performance, but Williams was deliberately equivocal about the future, saying:

“I don’t know and really don’t want to be second guessing where he goes next. Even this race was up in the air until a few minutes beforehand.

“Apart from the nervous moment where he nearly sat down, which was a scary moment, obviously, I’m delighted, thrilled. He had to get the job done and he did.

“He has done his work like you’d want him to but what horses do on a five-furlong interval training gallop isn’t always the best guide to what is going to happen over three miles on a racecourse.

“He has done everything that we wanted, and it was nice we eventually found somewhere for him where the ground was okay. Once you get to this level, hardly anything is ideal, because you have such few opportunities. It is nice to do the job. Now we can bring him back and see if he comes out all right and think about the next one.”