Nico de Boinville has addressed the Constitution Hill ‘nay sayers’ after concerns over the 2023 Champion Hurdle winner’s gallop performance at Newbury this week.
Nicky Henderson’s star was seen in public on Tuesday for the first time since being pulled up in his work at Kempton in February, when it transpired he was suffering from an infection which ruled him out of the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.
Working alongside last year’s long-time Triumph Hurdle favourite Sir Gino, De Boinville was visibly hard at work in the final furlongs of the Newbury workout, causing his price for this month’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle to ease from 4/6 to 5/6.
Speaking on episode 1 of At The Races’ new jumps show Unbridled, with Matt Chapman and Paddy Brennan, De Boinville revealed: “We would’ve expected a bit more but I’d like to think yesterday (Tuesday) would’ve brought him on an awful lot.
“He’s got one more piece of work to go then that’ll be it.
“For all the nay sayers out there: He’s a good price now, isn’t he?”
Brennan raised his concerns over the ease with which Constitution Hill was pulled up after the line, telling Chapman: “It was a great piece of work up until about the furlong marker. If you stopped watching it there you’d be really impressed.
“The key point about this piece of work is if you watch as the horse goes past the line and Nico drops the revs, he’s pulled up in three strides. That was the worrying bit for me.
“The best thing about Nicky (Henderson) is he doesn’t hide behind anything. He’s worked the horse with Sir Gino who is a serious horse.”
Chapman said: “What worried me was it looked like James Bowen riding Sir Gino was pulling him back to let Constitution Hill keep up.
“I don’t think if Nico had suddenly got the whip out on Constitution Hill, he’d have suddenly sprinted forward.”
Watch Unbridled every Wednesday on the At The Races YouTube channel.
