The Constitution Hill Conundrum

I’ve hesitated writing any opinions on the ongoing Constitution Hill situation as I’m aware some people are a bit tired of hearing about this one horse. However I think the thing that keeps people talking and writing about it is the mystery of what has happened to him- why does he keep falling? Is he past it? Was he never as good as people thought? Lots of thoughts and opinions and like all good amateur sleuths everyone wants to be the one to “solve the mystery” of what has gone wrong for Constitution Hill.

One thing is for sure, running him on the flat can only be a good thing for Southwell race course- it should definitely draw the crowds.

The thoughts below are just my personal ponderings and considerations on the possibilities and some of the suggestions that have been put forward in the media.

1. Pain – much has been said about the horse having some sort of injury or pain that causes him trouble on landing. After his last fall it did look a little like something in his back end/back leg twinged on landing and at the next he fell. Of course he will have had every test going with no expense spared so you could pretty much rule out most obvious things. Having been around horses for many years though there are definitely cases where all the tests, x-rays and scans show nothing at all obvious, but you as the owner know something isn’t just quite right. You trundle on trying your best and then eventually months or years down the line find out what the issue was. It is always going to be difficult assessing pain with an animal that can’t tell us exactly how they feel or where something hurts, so we are always going to be working off best endeavours only with no guarantee of 100% certainty that there is no pain anywhere.
2. Pain memory- some folk insist this isn’t a thing with horses, some insist it is and there hasn’t been too much research done into this area yet. I very much believe that horses can have bad memories of certain things. Horses have survived over thousands of years by having an amazing ability to remember their surroundings – their lives used to depend on it- the bush that looks slightly different to yesterday, that could have been a lion waiting to pounce hiding behind it. Therefore it stands to good reason that their excellent memories can be used in situations where they’ve had a bad experience and the circumstances (racing) reminds them of it again, they expect the pain to happen on jumping, this then affects how they jump and they end up falling again.
3. Bad jockey- I will never ever say that anyone who is prepared to sit on a horse several times a day, going at speeds of up to 40mph over huge jumps, doing a sport that can cause serious injuries and even death, is a bad jockey. Jockey bashing is completely unnecessary in my mind and must be a contributing factor to the high rates of depression and suicide in this sport. It may well be that Nico de Boinville isn’t the best jockey for CH right now but that doesn’t make him a bad jockey. Different horses need different riders : it wouldn’t be impossible to think that the pressure on Nico and the reminders of the falls before on CH could play on his mind and mean he’s lost confidence on him. Naturally this could in turn affect the horse and his way of going. James Bowen did manage to get him round a course without a fall and maybe a different jockey with a more decisive way of putting CH to the jumps would work again. Only one way to find that out.
4. The new version of the hurdles – following extensive studies it was decided that the old wooden and orange coloured tops hurdles would be replaced with padded white hurdles. Coincidentally it seems that this change was the start of CH’s troubles over hurdles. It is thought that the white colour is more easily seen by horses thus making it safer. Again though even with all the best scientific evidence we can never be 100% sure that for each individual horse they are really seeing any colour better than another. Indeed at speed maybe seeing something brighter, better and possibly also reflective isn’t better at all and causes a horse to hesitate as they get a glance at a reflection of bright light etc. Horses (due to the way their eyes are positioned and their long noses) can not actually see the jump as they take off over it so they are relying on a memory image of it. As they take off the jump disappears into their blind spot – easy to see why at speed the slightest mistake in stride or vision can cause an error or fall. Also what is better for one horse may not be for another. Again totally anecdotal from me, but having ridden many ex racehorses around the same road there were a few who would always spook at the same white decorative stones every time on a hack and then the other 50% never batted an eyelid at them. Again it’s one of those things no-one can be 100% sure on, so just another thing to consider.
5. He’s just not that good – racing is a bit like being a sales person- you’re only ever as good as your last race or sale in some people’s minds! With nearly 900k in prize money and 10 out of 14 wins in his rules races you’d be hard pressed to really think he wasn’t any good. There is the possibility of course that he’s peaked or just fallen out of love with the game for whatever reason, but that alone doesn’t mean he wasn’t ever really that good. Something has clearly happened somewhere along the line to cause this drop in performance.
6. Why is Nicky Henderson putting him in a flat race at Southwell? What is the point? I’ve seen these questions asked a lot on social media channels and I think Nicky Henderson has addressed them himself in recent interviews. Allowing CH a run on the flat logically gives a few benefits:

• He gets a good race, doesn’t have to contend with any jumps and maybe starts to see that racing isn’t such a bad thing after all. A chance to restore his confidence
• It gives the trainer and his owners the opportunity to see if there is any scope for a career on the flat for him should they decide not to run him over hurdles again. It’d be some age to start a flat career though and a bit unprecedented really.
• It gives a chance to observe him under race day conditions without the risk of falling over the jumps – it could partially answer the question of does he just not like racing anymore.
• The owners and trainers get the opinion of a different professional jockey on the scope of CH. It is really hard to give an opinion on a horse’s way of going without actually sitting on it and riding it. How it looks from the ground can be very different to how it feels under saddle.

Nicky Henderson is an accomplished trainer who everyone knows loves his horses and does the best he can by them. People are keen to know what has gone wrong for Constitution Hill and there must be some pressure on Nicky to find out. The other pressure is that no-one wants to see CH get hurt seriously or, worst case scenario, fatally. After so many falls there is a real feeling among many racing lovers that the owner/trainer are chancing their luck running him over hurdles again and it can only be a matter of time before he sustains a serious injury or more. Nobody wants to see CH get hurt and we all know that at a time when racing is under heavy scrutiny a serious fall would be a terrible blow and damage the public perception of racing further.

I look forward to seeing him run on the flat at Southwell – I am hoping Oisin Murphy gets the ride, but there are many worthy contenders – and I hope it answers some of the outstanding questions around CH and more importantly decides his future in a way that is safe all round.

WHEN DOES CONSTITUTION HILL RACE ON THE FLAT? Southwell Friday 20th February (evening racing)