There’s nothing those inside the racing bubble love more than silencing the doubters.
Paul Nicholls is a past master at it, even if there’s only been a tiny murmuring of disquiet in one quarter about a runner in a big race, that doubter being silenced is mentioned very early in the post-race reaction.
Graham Cunningham tells a story of Harry Findlay rushing over to him in the immediate aftermath of Denman’s Gold Cup victory, grabbing him by the arm and blasting: “We knew”.
GC was one of only two tipsters in the Racing Post Naps Table to side with the horse.
And right now the wagons are being circled around Constitution Hill.
Nico de Boinville told Peter Thomas in the Racing Post: "I know where Constitution Hill is and I still retain the faith. I ride him in all his major bits of work and I'm very happy with where we are, just tightening the final screws, and then we're all set. The dream is that he comes out and wins at Kempton and shows all his old sparkle, and I don't doubt him at all.
"Don't forget he still hasn't been beaten on the track. You're all doom and gloom but you don't know what's been going on, so I hope that on Boxing Day we can prove you all wrong and shut you all up."
Owner Michael Buckley is at it too, taking umbrage at the brief look ahead to the Christmas Hurdle that brought ITV’s broadcast from Ascot to an end on Saturday.
In Monday's Racing Post he blasted: “I listened to Ed Chamberlin, Tom Scudamore and Luke Harvey in the dark at the end of racing yesterday, talking about 'whether this horse can come back from injury'. Wake up guys, he's never been injured. He had a lung infection. It's like saying an athlete can't come back from the flu. It's absolutely ridiculous.”
Maybe you can understand the tetchiness. The team must be frustrated, after all, this should be Constitution Hill’s era.
At seven rising eight you’d imagine he’d be at the peak of his powers. You think back to that remarkable Sky Bet Supreme demolition of Jonbon which took him within a handful of pounds of being the highest ever rated hurdler with Timeform.
It speaks volumes that some were left feeling a little flat after a Champion Hurdle-winning performance 12 months later that saw him come home a mere nine lengths clear of State Man. It was only a matter of finding competition to stretch him further, eek out that monster performance that looks to be lurking.
But since then it’s all been a bit of a struggle.
His win in the Aintree Hurdle a month later was the first time some saw chinks in the armour.
Last winter he bypassed the Fighting Fifth and International because of very deep ground.
His Christmas Hurdle defeat of Rubaud was as routine as a SP of 1/12 would suggest. His Timeform performance rating only needed to be 148+ - 29 pounds shy of that Supreme figure.
And then the wheels came off.
The disastrous racecourse gallop at Kempton in February, the lung infection that surfaced immediately afterwards that was to go on decimate his own season and Henderson’s Cheltenham plans.
A bout of suspected colic in April saw him require treatment at a veterinary hospital before returning to Seven Barrows. A huge scare.
He returned after a summer grass “on the burly side” and underwent a breathing operation that came as something of a bolt from the blue from those looking on from the outside.
He moved stables at the Lambourn yard, a new base with it’s own paddock, and all roads led again to the Fighting Fifth.
But then another bump on the Road To Cheltenham. A racecourse gallop at Newbury, like Kempton in the spring with a full media presence, didn’t go according to plan as he laboured in the final furlong while Sir Gino glided to the line.
Henderson and De Boinville insisted they were happy but a few days later there was a market drift for Newcastle and a hastily recorded video statement from Ascot where the trainer said: "I have to report we have a problem with Constitution Hill. He's currently lame. This wasn't immediately apparent after his gallop at Newbury on Tuesday but the last 48 hours he has been sore but for what reason we are still unaware.
"I’m currently investigating. This as I'm sure everybody will appreciate, is a tragic problem for us and an issue but we have to report where we are and he is still under investigation, we are trying to find the reason for it and that's not apparent.
"We will keep everybody posted but at this stage you'd have to say he's unlikely to make it next Saturday at Newcastle but I have to stress this isn't a retirement call. He was bright and breezy after his gallop but now we have this issue."
And it took a while to diagnose but by the end of the week they’d done it.
Henderson telling ITV: “He had a long day yesterday, starting with x-rays which showed nothing which you have to be pleased about. You do wonder if there might he a chip or something in a knee or fetlock, but there was nothing to see anywhere.
“He had an ultrasound then a MRI and the MRI scan has revealed there’s a bit of bruising in the pastern. There was a tiny little mark in there and it appears on the MRI that it’s touching a nerve. No part of the mechanism is injured at all, there’s no damage to anything, no tendons or ligaments are affected, nothing is fractured but he is still lame.
“He was remarkably better by Friday evening but it is touching a nerve. I don’t know much about these things. Dave Matterson, our vet who has been treating him, says he's never seen it in 40 years practising as a vet.”
Three days to three months was the prognosis in terms of recovery time, thankfully it was towards the shorter end of the scale and at 10am on Monday morning Constitution Hill was declared for the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle.
There’s probably too much detail in that background, you know it all already, but the fact the two racecourse gallops proved catalysts for such significant setbacks, meant a lot of it played out in the public arena.
Quite rightly we never get to find out all that goes on at home with the horses, the battles and challenges trainers and owners face. Henderson has alluded a couple of times to the fact his star hurdler’s – well constitution – isn’t necessarily a strength.
So the team can surely understand the interest in the horse – and the questions that have arisen heading towards Boxing Day.
The wind surgery, lameness, that piece of work at Newbury, it’s obvious ammunition for the doubters.
But even those who thrive on such material, would surely welcome a return to something like his best from the poster boy of British jumps racing.
And he’ll need to be if he’s to retain his unbeaten record after Willie Mullins opted to run Lossiemouth against him.
She’s race fit and upwardly mobile, proving far too quick for star staying hurdler Teahupoo on her return in the Hatton’s Grace. She's favourite for the Unibet Champion Hurdle and a sufficient draw to tempt Paul Townend to jump on a Ryanair plane rather than into the car for a few penalty kicks at Leopardstown.
At 9.39 on Monday, Thursday's race looked like being a lovely, serene return to action for Constitution Hill. A minute later, Mullins pressed the button to send the grey mare his way this Christmas and it's anything but.
We should be raising a glass of Malbec in the direction of Closutton. It's a brave and fascinating move for all this is a race that still revolves around Constitution Hill.
It has to. Lossiemouth's last three winning Timeform adjusted winning performances came in at 167+, 172+ and 169+.
She has a weight-adjusted rating of 176p going into the race. Constitution Hill sits on 188.
186+ for his Champion Hurdle, 181+ the 2022 Christmas Hurdle, 188+ in 'that Supreme'.
Henderson insists the fire still burns, reports are of two recent sparkling pieces of work and were he to be back somewhere near that level on Boxing Day it wouldn't only silence the understandable doubters out there, but be a huge shot in the arm for the sport.
Win, lose, or draw, the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle has suddenly become appointment viewing.
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