Constitution Hill will stay over hurdles this season, trainer Nicky Henderson has announced.
The six-year-old is unbeaten in seven career starts to date, with six of those victories at Grade One level, including a nine-length triumph in last season’s Champion Hurdle.
Following Constitution Hill’s Aintree Hurdle verdict in April, Henderson, owner Michael Buckley and jockey Nico de Boinville discussed a possible switch to chasing over the summer.
However, they have now decided to remain over the smaller obstacles, with another Champion Hurdle success the ultimate aim.
Henderson told the PA news agency: “The news on Constitution Hill is that after a lot of deliberating and a lot of advice from everybody in the world, because everybody wants a piece of this, he is going to stay over hurdles.
“At the end of the day I don’t think it was the hardest decision I’ve ever made. People will ask if we’ve schooled him over fences and why have we come to this decision.
“He would jump fences with his eyes shut, if we wanted him to, but the basis of the decision was we had to be 100 per cent sure that he would stay three and a quarter miles (in the Gold Cup).
“There was nothing to be gained by switching to fences by running in an Arkle, Champion Chase and possibly a Ryanair, great races though they are, but the Champion Hurdle is the Champion Hurdle, so if you are going to run in anything you might as well stick to what you know.
“I dare say there will be plenty of people saying this is unimaginative, but there was no doubt in Nico’s (De Boinville) mind, stamina was likely to be a major issue and the only point in doing it was if one felt he could become a Gold Cup horse.”
“For all three of us the decision was unanimous. You might say why did it take three months, but we all felt it was the right decision.”
So many special memories, as Dettori prepares for Arc swansong
As he prepares for his final ride in the race, Frankie Dettori reflected on a kaleidoscope of memories from three decades of riding in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, labelling his 1995 triumph on Lammtarra as his greatest.
But the Italian would not let the ink dry on that revelation without recalling Golden Horn in 2015 as his best ride in the race widely regarded as the greatest in the world.
Dettori drew a blank on his three mounts on the eve-of-Arc-day card, but from the sanctuary of the weighing room looked back into the race’s archive and extracted the name of Lammtarra.
He recalled: “To win the Arc is every jockey’s dream, and so the best memory of my winners has to be the first and that was Lammtarra. He was inexperienced but very good, and we don’t know how good he might have been.
“But the ride that gave me a lot of personal satisfaction was on Golden Horn. I did something out of the box in that, I went out on my own and it worked to perfection. He was a very good horse, and especially on that day which is a special memory for sure.”
His mount in his Arc swansong is the John and Thady Gosden-trained mare Free Wind, carded to start as around a 20-1 outsider.
The rider is taking a realistic approach to her match up with older and younger males without totally eliminating the possibility of an earning display from the George Strawbridge-owned five-year-old.
He added: “I’ve won on her three times, but I’m realistic because she’s had her problems and is coming back. She’s a Group Two winner and she’s worked well and has a good draw. But it’s still a big ask.
“If she gets a place I will be delighted – if she won it would be totally amazing and I’m not sure how I would react.”
Astro King rules supreme in Cambridgeshire
Daniel and Claire Kubler’s Astro King pounced late to land the bet365 Cambridgeshire under top-weight at Newmarket.
The six-yar-old gelding was a 20-1 chance under Richard Kingscote and travelled on the inside as the 34-strong field split into several groups down the Rowley Mile.
At one stage the race looked to be happening on the other side, but as Greek Order, the smooth-travelling 5-2 favourite, accelerated down the centre as a gap finally came for Harry and Roger Charlton’s hotpot, he took with him the Kubler challenger.
In the final strides the two locked horns and it was Astro King that just put his head down to seal a valuable triumph by half a length under the burden of 9st 12lb.
Vandeek wows to stay unbeaten in Middle Park
Vandeek demonstrated his class with a tremendously impressive victory in the Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket.
The Simon and Ed Crisford-trained Havana Grey colt came into the race unbeaten having landed a Nottingham maiden, the Richmond at Goodwood and the Prix Morny throughout the year.
He was the heavily-backed 5-4 favourite under James Doyle and left the stalls a touch slowly before being tucked in behind rivals in the early stages of the race.
When a gap appeared Doyle guided him through it and from there he accelerated readily to leave the whole field behind him and triumph by two and a quarter lengths from Task Force, with River Tiber a head further back in third.
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