Constitution Hill truly matched his reputation when coming home a hugely-impressive winner of the 93rd running of the Grade One Unibet Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham today. Returned the 4-11 Favourite, he is the shortest-priced winner of the Champion Hurdle in its history.

Partnered by Nico de Boinville, the result was never in doubt as the six year old Blue Bresil gelding travelled supremely well throughout and went clear on the home turn to win as he liked by nine lengths.

Winning trainer Nicky Henderson said: “He can be very long. You can do anything with this horse. You could jump a fence, you could go three miles. He has had six races now and has barely come off the bridle, but it won’t last forever so let’s enjoy it while we have got it. Sprinter did amazing things for us and the emotion behind him for his comeback was unbelievable. This horse has got into those echelons after six races. It is an extraordinary thing to happen but he is an extraordinary horse. He is a freak. I said to Nico let’s keep it as simple as you possibly can ,and he did.

“I’ve watery eyes, I always have had and I always will have but that would bring a tear to most eyes when you see a horse quite like that as I think that is pretty unique. I had 12 months of them (anxious moments) but that is our life. I think as it gets closer and closer you get even more anxious. Have you done this or have you done that. There is a brilliant team behind him and they have done fantastic.

“We all know the last few weeks are horrible. I hope I’ve not been too bad but they have been brilliant behind us. One of these comes around in a lifetime. You have got to have a lot of horses to find one of these. That is only the sixth race of his life and he is doing that now. We have had some wonderful days with Sprinter Sacre in particular. This horse is going to extraordinary levels at the moment and we are lucky to be the custodian of him but a lot of responsibility goes with it.”

The successful jockey Nico de Boinville said: “We always had a plan just to do that, and then you could go backwards and forwards according to how you wanted to do it - you just didn’t want to get into trouble. I wasn’t quite sure what the Willie Mullins camp were going to do; it was interesting to me when Vauban lined up, and I thought, ‘oh, right’, and then I saw State Man was tracking me. Sam Twiston-Davies set some lovely fractions [on I Like To Move It] there so I could just stop-start, stop-start, because his jumping took me there all the time, and I could use the hills to fill him up again. I didn’t see one at the last, but he did, so… I had visions of Annie Power! But I thought, ‘well done, he knows better than me’, but in actual fact he was on his hocks and so was able to elevate up and out of it. He was foot-perfect all the way.

“The past year has been great. Obviously, you wanted to get through all the preliminary races - the Fighting Fifth, we had a great reception up there, then the Christmas Hurdle. And in actual fact two weeks before coming into this I decided to switch off [all media] - it was just white noise and it was just getting ridiculous, everyone was talking about it. We thought we’d just focus on ourselves and on what was going on at Seven Barrows. Sean who rides him every day has done a fantastic job, the guvnor [Nicky Henderson] has got him in great order. I think he has proved to everyone what a fabulous racehorse he is.

“I’m absolutely delighted for Michael [Buckley]; he’s got a fabulous racehorse on his hands and he has put so much into the game. He’s a maverick owner in that he will try new things and will try anything, so where we go now, I don’t know.

“He could do anything - I’m sure we will try him over a fence at some point. I guess we don’t want to pigeon-hole him just as a hurdler; he could be anything. I think he’d be good over a fence. As racing fans, that’s what we want to see. I find in recent years horses have tended to get pigeon-holed too much, bar Faugheen. It could be interesting, and he’s still so young.

“All those horses [Sprinter Sacre, Altior and Coneygree] are fantastic in their own right and they belong in their own era. I don’t like to do that [compare them and decide on a ‘best’], and this is my first Champion Hurdler and my first top, top two-mile hurdler. Today he was fantastic and I don’t think anything would get anywhere near him.

“It was all very smooth today. You saw him - as soon as he got to the front, he pricked his ears and said, ‘come on, let’s go, go and do the business.’. He’s so straightforward and these Blue Bresils, they seem to bring that element of attitude to the game. He takes it all in his stride - he’s so relaxed.

“I love watching Nicky with any of his horses. He’s an absolute master of getting them to peak at any time; I just love being in the yard and enjoying the ride. It’s fantastic to watch him, knowing that I could never do that or have that intuition or instinct. I just try to enjoy it and relax.”