Constitution Hill - will he or won't he?

[The Brigadier]

Nicky Henderson has given an update on Constitution Hill today -

What do we all think ?

[calva decoy]

If it's good to firm , then no ! 

The Cheltenham Festival maybe the be all & end all & full of media hype & Constitution Hill the star of the show but if he doesn't run they'll still be plenty of equine superstars on show as well as good competitive UK jump racing on offer for more than 4 days each & every year .

 

[MinellaWorksop]

This is the horse racing Gods teaching Nicky Henderson a lesson....

"You should have been adventurous, you should have gone over fences!" Lol.

Joking aside I hope the horse is OK. I actually feel sorry for the long faced chap Constitution Hill. People are so obsessed with maintaining the unbeaten record phenomenon. I just prefer to see the best race the best. Let them race, let them get beat. Let them make glorious comebacks. Stop wrapping them up in cotton wool trying to maintain 100% records and racing these superstar horses in the weakest looking race possible every time. Rant over lol.

[Systemight]

Totally agree.

I guess i am old enough to remember when the top hurdlers of their time Sea Pigeon,Birds Nest,Dramatist,Night Nurse,Monksfield,Beacon Light etc seemed to race each other nearly every other week,even Desert Orchid used to be a standing dish on most Big Race Saturdays.

Actually I think it was Nicky Henderson that started this trend with the former Champion Hurdler (See You Then) many years ago,where he was seen that little on the racecourse the press used to nickname him "See You When"..Lol

[Zilzalian]

More worrying than 1 horse in 1 race is the fact that field sizes are dropping fast, this years festival handicap entries are the lowest in recent memory they say. I can see it having to drop back to 3 days. (probably wont because they are greedy sods) but from my experience of going to the festival on half a dozen occasions it was far better at 3 days than this 4 day nonsense where horses are entered in so many different races its difficult to work out who and where and in which race they are running in. What is there 28 races? A good few will have half a dozen or so runners with an odds on shot as fav. The handicaps will be won mainly by the Irish with horses that you never heard of and handicap rated by lets say, less than honest running's.

[calva decoy]

8 hours ago, Zilzalian said:

More worrying than 1 horse in 1 race is the fact that field sizes are dropping fast, this years festival handicap entries are the lowest in recent memory they say. I can see it having to drop back to 3 days. (probably wont because they are greedy sods) but from my experience of going to the festival on half a dozen occasions it was far better at 3 days than this 4 day nonsense where horses are entered in so many different races its difficult to work out who and where and in which race they are running in. What is there 28 races? A good few will have half a dozen or so runners with an odds on shot as fav. The handicaps will be won mainly by the Irish with horses that you never heard of and handicap rated by lets say, less than honest running's.

Doesn't really matter if a horse has X amount of entries as most bookies are NRNB so if you go down the wrong route you're not out of pocket the more worrying thing I find / found with ante post betting over last few years is the complete lack of value compared to years gone by , I actually put this down to the massive rise in punters using online bookies nowadays .

Along with Newbury , Sandown , Plumpton & Fontwell , I do terrible at Cheltenham festival or no festival & just do an each way lucky 15 on all 4 days & this as an advocate for not doing multis & only singles in general .

Good luck to yourself & others on here though 👍 .

[ivans82]

I have one main question to ask regarding NRNB , in the small print in the bookies it has the dreaded word Rule 4 may apply . Therefore if i bet against Constitution Hill , will i be hammered with a huge Rule 4 if it doesn`t run  ? I have asked in a few of my local shops  , no one can give me a satisfactory answer , i have e-mailed Corals and their reply didn`t answer the question either , whats your views ?

[Trotter]

8 minutes ago, calva decoy said:

Along with Newbury , Sandown , Plumpton & Fontwell , I do terrible at Cheltenham festival or no festival & just do an each way lucky 15 on all 4 days & this as an advocate for not doing multis & only singles in general .

 

I've never done well at the Festival either. In the 'olden days' I used to do minimum stakes L15s ..... these days I just go in for the PL  Cheltenham competition and leave it at that. One good thing about the Festival is that you don't need to bet to enjoy the races .....particularly the Championship events

I guess it's logical if you have pretty big fields full of good horses, many specially prepared to peak for this meeting, it's going to be difficult to find winners unless you stick to the Mullins odds-on shots (and even then they won't all win!)

There's a reason why the bookies bombard us with offers twice a year ..... Cheltenham and the Grand National

That's what they want us to bet on

Anyway these days I never look any further ahead than 'tomorrow's racing' ........ so Cheltenham won't get looked at until the night before

 

[calva decoy]

3 hours ago, ivans82 said:

I have one main question to ask regarding NRNB , in the small print in the bookies it has the dreaded word Rule 4 may apply . Therefore if i bet against Constitution Hill , will i be hammered with a huge Rule 4 if it doesn`t run  ? I have asked in a few of my local shops  , no one can give me a satisfactory answer , i have e-mailed Corals and their reply didn`t answer the question either , whats your views ?

You'll find out Monday if CH runs or not but with Henderson's string running so poorly over last 7 days ( only 2 winners I think I heard ) & a very low strike rate without anyone saying it it wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a bug going round the yard(s) at Seven Barrows & he'll be a non runner with Punchestown & Aintree being the beneficiary but then again , pure conjecture on my part  .

What have you or are you backing against CH ?

[calva decoy]

22 hours ago, calva decoy said:

You'll find out Monday if CH runs or not but with Henderson's string running so poorly over last 7 days ( only 2 winners I think I heard ) & a very low strike rate without anyone saying it it wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a bug going round the yard(s) at Seven Barrows & he'll be a non runner with Punchestown & Aintree being the beneficiary but then again , pure conjecture on my part  .

What have you or are you backing against CH ?

Jeez , it's all my fault CH isn't running & now STATE MANS to lose ?

[ivans82]

On 3/3/2024 at 1:41 PM, calva decoy said:

You'll find out Monday if CH runs or not but with Henderson's string running so poorly over last 7 days ( only 2 winners I think I heard ) & a very low strike rate without anyone saying it it wouldn't surprise me at all if there was a bug going round the yard(s) at Seven Barrows & he'll be a non runner with Punchestown & Aintree being the beneficiary but then again , pure conjecture on my part  .

What have you or are you backing against CH ?

I was hoping Lossiemouth would run in the Champion Hurdle but if not Mullins still has it sewn up .

[calva decoy]

56 minutes ago, ivans82 said:

I was hoping Lossiemouth would run in the Champion Hurdle but if not Mullins still has it sewn up .

Marine Nationale another winner from last year also missing  , as for Lossiemouth  , Mullins has pretty hard job re placements , wonder how many winners he'll bag this year , 7 or 8 ?