Cheltenham Festival preview: Reigning champions profiled

CONSTITUTION HILL

Constitution Hill looked something out of the ordinary right from his debut for Nicky Henderson in a novice hurdle at Sandown in December 2021. Exactly how good he might prove to be was impossible to tell from that impressive first effort but he wasted no time in stamping himself as an outstanding novice. After again showing a fine turn of foot in even more testing conditions to follow up in the Tolworth Novices’ Hurdle over the same course and distance the following month – his first Grade 1 victory - Constitution Hill put up a stunning performance in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Far from being inconvenienced by much quicker ground than he’d faced in his first two starts, Constitution Hill proved still more devastating in what was a strongly-run race at Cheltenham with an electric burst of speed off the final bend on the way to beating stablemate Jonbon, a smart novice himself and a top-class chaser nowadays, by 22 lengths. Backed up by the clock, Constitution Hill’s performance was as good as any from a novice in Timeform’s long experience and, on paper, would have been good enough to win him the Champion Hurdle later on the card.

A year later he did just that which, in truth, is the only time since that Constitution Hill has really been called upon to show something like the brilliance of his Supreme win. Because as well as being one of the best hurdlers we’ve seen for a very long time, Constitution Hill happens to be around at a time when the other two-mile hurdlers, or those in Britain at least, are some way short of normal Champion Hurdle standard. As a result, Constitution Hill had straightforward tasks the following season when winning the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle (by a dozen lengths from stablemate Epatante, a former Champion Hurdle winner herself) and the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton by a still wider margin before taking an unbeaten record of five races into his first Champion Hurdle.

Here he faced a potentially tougher opponent in State Man, who’d deposed the mare Honeysuckle, winner of the last two Champion Hurdles, as Ireland’s top hurdler. But in a field of just seven, the smallest for the race for nearly fifty years, Constitution Hill was sent off at 4/11 and so became the shortest-priced winner in the race’s history, leaving State Man for dead when quickening clear in the straight to win by nine lengths without Nico de Boinville having to ask him any sort of question. If he’d been ‘supreme’ the year before, there was no doubting he was a ‘champion’ now. The Aintree Hurdle over another half-mile was new territory for Constitution Hill but he made all the running this time and while he ‘only’ had three lengths to spare, much the smallest winning margin of his career to date, he always looked in complete control.

The question at the end of the 2022/23 season was whether Constitution Hill would remain over hurdles or be sent chasing. The latter option was rejected but for various reasons Constitution Hill’s current campaign hasn’t quite been a repeat of last season. The Fighting Fifth was lost to the weather originally and the restaged race at Sandown, run on very testing ground, was considered too close to the Christmas Hurdle for him to take in both races. Constitution Hill duly made short work of his rivals at Kempton again but was denied another run before his Champion Hurdle defence when missing the International Hurdle at the same track, in its new January slot, after an unsatisfactory scope.

No new rivals have emerged as would-be challengers to Constitution Hill’s Champion Hurdle title so it’s likely he’ll start at still shorter odds than last year. State Man, whose only defeat in his eleven completed starts for Willie Mullins came in last year’s race, would be a worthy Champion Hurdle winner himself in any other era and like last year looks much the best of what again might prove to be little more than a handful of rivals at most. A second win for Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle would bring his trainer’s record total of wins in the race to ten and he’d become Henderson’s third Champion Hurdle winner to win it more than once after triple winner See You Then in the 1980s and Buveur d’Air in 2017/18.

GALOPIN DES CHAMPS

The 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner came to prominence for the first time at the Cheltenham Festival two years earlier when he was a decisive winner of the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle. That was also his first win for Willie Mullins since coming from France where he’d won on his debut at Auteuil, and while Galopin des Champs confirmed the big impression he’d made at Cheltenham when following up by a dozen lengths in Grade 1 novice company at Punchestown when stepped up to three miles, it’s as a chaser that he has excelled for the last three seasons.

He was the top novice in 2021/22 when he would have had a perfect record in his first season over fences but for a last-fence fall in the Turner’s Novices Chase back at the Festival when all set to give a sound beating to market rival Bob Olinger. That would have been another top-class effort to go with a scintillating chasing debut at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting, a Grade 1 win at the same track’s Dublin Racing Festival and, after his Cheltenham mishap, a wide-margin victory from the front in another Grade 1 at Fairyhouse. All of Galopin des Champs’ races in his novice season had come over intermediate trips which in theory gave him the option of stepping down in distance to two miles as well returning to longer distances.

But having made an impressive return in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase, it was clear that Galopin des Champs’ sights were set firmly on the Gold Cup once he’d won the Irish equivalent on a first try over three miles over fences. Settling well, the odds-on Galopin des Champs cemented himself at the head of the Cheltenham Gold Cup betting with an eight-length beating of stablemate and second favourite Stattler and putting distance between himself and the placed horses on the run-in which was encouraging for his prospects of seeing out the extra distance at Cheltenham.

In a vintage field for the 2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup, which included the two most recent winners Minella Indo and A Plus Tard, Galopin des Champs was sent off the short-priced favourite and delivered a top-drawer performance and one of the best seen in the Gold Cup in recent years. The one aspect about it which perhaps didn’t earn top marks was his jumping, but otherwise he travelled well under a patient ride from Paul Townend and finished in good style, drawing seven lengths clear of the second favourite and main British hope Bravemansgame, the King George winner, which gave the form a very solid look in what was a soundly-run race.

It therefore came as a surprise when Galopin des Champs was beaten on his very next start in the Punchestown Gold Cup where he was turned over by Fastorslow, runner-up in the Ultima at the Festival and a long way behind Galopin des Champs in the John Durkan the previous autumn. But it was an easy enough ‘end-of-season’ result to dismiss with Galopin des Champs having the excuse of feeling his Cheltenham exertions. However, when Fastorslow repeated the trick in the John Durkan when both horses made their return in November, and in which Galopin des Champs was only third this time, questions began to be asked about the Gold Cup form. Was it really as good as it looked at the time? Especially as Bravemansgame had also suffered odds-on defeats on both his starts in the autumn in Britain.

But again, Galopin des Champs had excuses as he looked rusty in a steadily-run race, and it was certainly a very different horse which came roaring back to form at Leopardstown just after Christmas in the Savills Chase. He looked better than ever in fact, clearly all the better for his reappearance and benefiting too from a more positive ride which resulted in a better round of jumping. Already seven lengths clear of Gerri Colombe jumping the last, Galopin des Champs powered clear to win by 23 lengths from an up-and-coming rival whose own Gold Cup aspirations took a knock.

A subsequent four-and-a-half length beating of Fastorslow to win his second Irish Gold Cup in February, under another positive ride, therefore leaves Galopin des Champs with excellent chances of becoming his stable’s second back-to-back winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup after Al Boum Photo in 2019/20. He’s generally a shade of odds-on to retain his crown against the likes of Fastorslow and Gerri Colombe, with Shishkin his notable new rival in this year’s field.

SIRE DU BERLAIS

However he fares at Cheltenham this year, Sire du Berlais will achieve the notable feat of competing at the Festival for the seventh year running. Now aged twelve, his first appearance there came in the 2018 Martin Pipe in which he finished a good fourth behind his stablemate Blow By Blow. Having begun his career in France, Sire du Berlais was lightly campaigned in his early seasons with Gordon Elliott which probably goes a long way to explaining why he’s been able to keep performing to a high level in his veteran years.

He was in his third campaign with Elliott before he registered his first win for the yard and his owner JP McManus which came back at the Festival in the 2019 Pertemps Final. Benefiting from a vintage Barry Geraghty ride and the fitting of cheekpieces for the first time, Sire du Berlais started the well-backed 4/1 favourite in a hotly-contested renewal and found plenty on the run-in to deny one of the outsiders Tobefair by a neck. Another light campaign the following season had the same aim and the same result, though Sire du Berlais had to defy a 7 lb higher mark to win his second Pertemps under Geraghty, this one by half a length from stablemate The Storyteller. This time the cheekpieces were swapped for blinkers for the first time, headgear which he has worn pretty much ever since.

It was a smart effort from Sire du Berlais to win the 2020 Pertemps under top weight of 11-12, suggesting he wasn’t far off Stayers’ Hurdle standard, and he confirmed as much back at the Festival twelve months later. Having already won his first graded contest earlier that season, the Lismullen Hurdle at Navan, he stayed on to finish a good second to younger Irish-trained winner Flooring Porter in what was to be the first of his Stayers’ Hurdle attempts. But at the 2022 Festival he had qualified for the Pertemps Final again but interference suffered early in the race effectively ended his chances and resulted in his only failure to date to reach the frame at Cheltenham. But being spared a hard race proved a blessing in disguise as Sire du Berlais landed his first Grade 1 success in the Liverpool Hurdle and turned the tables on Flooring Porter who’d just won his second Stayers’ Hurdle.

Sire du Berlais’ 2022/23 season, in which he turned eleven, was his busiest yet but he didn’t thrive on it initially with some of his performances during the winter pointing towards a loss of enthusiasm as well as form. But in what was becoming a familiar pattern by now, Sire du Berlais blossomed in the spring, this time winning at both the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals. In a Stayers’ Hurdle in which Flooring Porter was going for a hat-trick of wins and with Elliott fielding the favourite Teahupoo, Sire du Berlais, five years older than his stablemate, was ignored in the betting at 33/1 but added to his excellent record at the meeting in getting the better of fellow outsider Dashel Drasher by three quarters of a length with Teahupoo a nose back in third. Sire du Berlais was the first eleven-year-old to win the Stayers’ Hurdle since Crimson Embers back in 1986.

Most of the principals from the Stayers’ Hurdle met again in the Liverpool Hurdle where Flooring Porter was sent off favourite despite having finished only fourth at Cheltenham. But Sire du Berlais repeated his 2022 victory, decisively so in the end, though he looked an unlikely winner for a long way after soon coming off the bridle in rear. But in a well-run race, his stamina counted in the closing stages as he stayed on strongly from Marie’s Rock with Flooring Porter back in third. While he couldn’t quite land a famous treble at the three major spring Festivals, Sire du Berlais was beaten less a length in third in the Champion Stayers Hurdle at Punchestown behind Klassical Dream.

In contrast to last season, much less of Sire du Berlais has been seen this term when everything seems to have been geared towards what might prove his final Festival appearance. Easy to back, he was the last of seven finishers in the Boyne Hurdle at Navan in February on his first run for ten months, having finished fourth in the same race last season. Elliott has two younger stablemates at the head of the Stayers’ Hurdle betting this year, with Irish Point joining Teahupoo, whereas Sire du Berlais is as big as 25/1 in places to cause another upset.

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