​Sure, look, Henry was right. And for a reason less obvious than his horse winning yet again at Cheltenham. Because Henry knows his horses and trade better than most, because he paid no heed to the ignorant disparagement and vituperation of numbskulls like me and Matt Chapman, he man-managed to shine a spotlight to the world on the connection and love racing people have for the horses that are the cynosure, magnet, focal point or fulcrum of lives which would be lessened without their equine majesty and willingness to run, jump and strain every sinew for us, mere mortals, for the meagre reward of three square meals a day.
Yes, I will continue to berate Cheltenham for allowing a race on the undercard to out-shine one of National Hunt’s classic races, and I will continue to desire to have the conditions of the Mares Hurdle altered so that either mares of the calibre of Honeysuckle and Epatante, the winners of the three previous Champion Hurdles, remember, either cannot be entered in the race or if they are allowed, they must carry a 7 or 10Ib penalty. Also, why isn’t there a genuine 2-Mile Champion Hurdle for mares at either the Dublin Racing Festival or Cheltenham’s Trial Day or Newbury around the same time of year? Of course, we might never see a mare the likes of Honeysuckle for another twenty-years and a mares Champion Hurdle might on many occasions turn out to be a damp squib but if the top mares are allowed the easier option of a lesser race at the Cheltenham Festival over the next few years, Constitution Hill will have no credible opposition for as long as he continues as a hurdler.
For what its worth, on her performance yesterday, it is perfectly possible that Honeysuckle would have finished in front of State Man if she had run in the Champion Hurdle, winning for her connections an extra £20,000. But as Henry knew full well, yesterday was not about prize-money. It was about ‘Honey’ retiring in the blaze of glory she had earned for herself over the years of her endeavours. The blaze of glory, thankfully, she received. And I do not think for one moment Honeysuckle was in decline this season. Racehorses, as the form-book makes clear, are not machines; occasionally the greats can be beaten, occasionally, for reasons never apparent to a layman or vet, they can under-perform and yet still salvage victory when defeat seemed more likely, as Honeysuckle achieved yesterday.
Yesterday, Love Envoi ran a magnificent race under an equally magnificent ride by Johnnie Burke. They should have won; they deserved to win - look how far behind the likes of Epatante and Marie’s Rock finished – yet they were outgunned up that telling hill by a mare who would run through walls for the jockey on her back.
Let us all pray that the powers beyond human control allow Honeysuckle a long life, easy births of her offspring and that her sons and daughters go on to reflect even more glory on her.
Of course, the other highlight of the day, other than the Irish highlight of the Green Country winning the day 5-2, the reverse of what I suggested, was Constitution Hill doing what we all suspect he will be doing at Cheltenham for the next, pray to the powers beyond human control, three, four, five years. He was totally magnificent, never at any point could you fool yourself, even State Man supporters, into believing an upset might occur. He is, in the manner of his enthusiasm, the hurdling equivalent of Frodon, in that he jumps for fun, with an accuracy of a gold-medal winning Olympic archer.
He is magnificent. Yet, let’s not get carried away. The 2023 Champion Hurdle was far from vintage. He beat State Man who beat the rest as easily as Constitution Hill beat him. Appearances suggest he can be one of the great National Hunt horses, yet a horse as good as him will always make lesser beings appear second-rate.
In my opinion, though, to be a great horse, a horse must beat either horses that have won the major hurdle prizes or that of a similar form-level. The 2-mile hurdling division is weak and has been for many decades. The previous great hurdler was Istabraq whose last Cheltenham success was in 2000, though he would have undoubtedly added the 2001 race if it were not for the Foot and Mouth outbreak. Though the same argument as I am now putting forward about Constitution Hill could equally be applied to Istabraq.
Go back to the days of Night Nurse, Monksfield, Sea Pigeon, etc, and for the years thereafter, and the calibre of hurdlers taking each other was of a magnitude that far excels the depth of the past twenty-years and more.
The hope must be that Marine Nationale keeps on improving and proves superior to, at least, State Man, then, perhaps, there might be a credible opponent to take on Constitution Hill next season.

​(This is part 1, with part 2, if I remember, on Thursday)
The aspect of horse racing that should be known to all is it is a sport not a science. Horses can improve for soft ground, for firm ground, for a change in distance or tactics, for a different jockey, for climatic conditions (some horses hate the rain, for instance) and for a faster or slower pace. The more times a horse runs, the easier it is to get a handle on individual preferences.
For instance, Inthepocket, in today’s Supreme Hurdle, should, according to the form-book, have little chance of reversing form after a 9-length defeat to Il Etait Temps at the Dublin Racing Festival. Yet Leopardstown and Cheltenham have little in common except they are both left-handed tracks. Il Etait Temps may not travel down the hill as well as Inthepocket or finish as strongly up the hill to the winning post. And to add to the dilemma the Mullins stable jockey, Paul Townend, has chosen to stick with Facile Vega who was beaten 20-lenths or more by both horses in that race.
Horse racing is about opinions, not science. Here, briefly, are my opinions.
I have a fancy for Doctor Bravo in the Supreme, though my eye keeps being drawn to Strong Leader.
I cannot get away from Jonbon in the Arkle as I am uncertain of El Fabiolo’s jumping.
The Ultima is tricky, as you would expect from a Cheltenham handicap. Three of my Grand National hopefuls run in this, though on this occasion I do not fancy Happygolucky, Remastered (ridden by David Noonan, perhaps a clue as to who will replace Tom Scudamore as David Pipe’s stable jockey next season) or The Big Breakaway. My fancy is Oscar Elite, with Glamorgan Duke as a big odds each-way shout.
Constitution Hill will win the Champion Hurdle
The Mares Hurdle has no right to be more competitive than the Champion Hurdle and the conditions of the race must be changed to prevent this disagreeable state of affairs to ever happen again. My heart wants Honeysuckle to win, though my head suggests Marie’s Rock.
The Boodles has oodles of horses with chances. Bad might turn out to be better than good and the booking of Rachel Blackmore could be significant and the bottom weight Romancero Le Dun might be thrown in off 10-st 3-Ilbs but I will side with Sir Allen and Danny Mullins.
Gaillard Du Mesnil should be a shoo-in in the National Hunt chase but a few times, even though he is yet to beat anything of this class, I have been impressed by Coolvalla and I’ll stick with him to bring Britain 5-2 in the lead over the old enemy, Willie Mullins. 
Obviously, making tips for Wednesday requires a wee bit of guesswork as declarations are not made until mid-day today, Tuesday. So that’s my excuse for any lamentable suggestions.
In my opinion the Ballymore is the better quality race for novices at the meeting. I want Hermes Allen to win but all season I have been mightily impressed with Gaelic Warrior and I will stay with him
The 3-mile novice chase looks a match between Gerri Colombe and Thyme Hill, with the former edging it for me.
The Coral Cup is a nightmare for amateur tipsters like myself. I literally haven’t a clue and will suggest Scaramanga for Willie Mullins even though he hasn’t seen a racecourse for 326-days, a mere trifle for someone of the genius of Mullins.
The 2-Mile Champion Chase is, in my opinion, the race of the meeting, with 5 perfectly predictable winners. After the Tingle Creek my instincts shouted out at me that Edwardstone would win the Champion Chase. After the Clarence House I edged over to Editeur Du Gite and remain in his camp, though this may be a case of wanting the Moores to have another big race winner sideswiping common-sense.
I like the change of pace the Glenfarclas brings to the Festival; a chance to unwind a little, to take a breather and watch a race of novelty and expertise. Gin On Lime interests me as I have a fancy for her in the Grand National. Whether she will run here is doubtful, I suspect, as she is a good ground horse, whereas Delta Work will love the ground and I expect him to out-stay his stable companion Galvin. Snow Leopardess is the only possible place hope for Britain.
I suggest Shakem Up’arry for the Grand Annual, more in hope than expectation, I admit.
And any of the eleven possible Closutton runners in the Bumper? This is such a competitive affair I will go for Fact to File to come home in front of Favour and Fortune and A Dream To Share.
5-2 to Ireland. 7-7 each overall.

​I expect, as, I dare say, the majority expect, that Constitution Hill will win the 2023 Champion Hurdle with his head in his chest. Can’t see any other outcome, can you? Yet even if he wins by 20-lengths, which is entirely possible, I will not be joining the chorus of ‘could he be the best we have ever seen’. Or whatever hyperbole spews from Ed Chamberlain’s mouth after the race. Oh, I have deliberately missed out the ? as Ed will not be posing a question but delivering his firm belief.
At this moment, Constitution Hill has run 5-times in his life and though in time he will perhaps run-up a sequence of victories to equal Istabraq, or be considered his superior, Constitution Hill has a lot of running to do. One swallow doth not make a summer and 5 or 6 strolls in the park against the quality of opposition he has thus far raced against doth not make a legendary superstar.
Younger people must be educated on the golden years of Champion Hurdlers, back when multiple champions met in race after race leading up to the Festival. For example, let’s dwell for a moment on Monksfield. He was not a shooting star. He had to work for his corn, his legendary status. He had run in 4 handicap hurdles before he went to Cheltenham for the first time, finishing second in the Triumph Hurdle behind Peterhof. He then returned to handicaps and was regularly beaten before he won the Irish Benson & Hedges Handicap at Fairyhouse, from where he finished fourth in the Sweeps Hurdle, also a handicap. In fact, handicaps were his staple running up to his 1977 clash with Night Nurse, the reigning Champion Hurdler, finishing second to the horse John Randall considers the greatest hurdler of all-time.
In fact, Monksfield continued to get beaten in handicaps and didn’t win a race the following year until getting his revenge on Night Nurse in the 1978 Champion Hurdle and again at Liverpool, before failing to give 2-stone to Royal Gaye in the Royal Doulton on firm ground in May of that year.
Of course, the great horse won a second Champion Hurdle the following season beating the legendary Sea Pigeon in a pulsating finish. Monksfield was a scrapper, never having an easy race.
I am making two points here. One, Monksfield ran a lot. Yes, it was a different time, when trainers did not have access to all-weather gallops, when the majority of the top hurdle races were handicaps and if Nicky Henderson had to prepare a horse for Cheltenham in a similar manner he would be a hell of a lot slimmer. And two, in the ‘golden era’ there were so many great hurdlers it is not an easy task to remember all their names. Here goes: Monksfield, Night Nurse, Comedy of Errors, Lanzarote, Bula, Beacon Light, Birds Nest and the horse John Francome described as ‘undoubtedly the best horse he ever rode, Sea Pigeon.
Even in, perhaps, the weakest Champion Hurdle Sea Pigeon ever ran in – a masterclass of a ride, by the way, from Francome – he beat the likes of Pollardstown, Daring Run, Celtic Ryde, Birds Nest, Badsworth Boy and Heighlin, multiple winners of multiple big races.
Istabraq, to set the record straight, won 25-races, 14 Grade 1’s, plus 3 Champion Hurdles and would have won 4 if not for the Foot and Mouth outbreak.
This is why it is sheer folly to anoint the head of Constitution Hill with greatness after only 5 starts, 6 come this time tomorrow. His potential is boundless. He could be anything from better than Istabraq to another Bob Olinger. Remember Bob Olinger and all that was said of him by the same people who are now bestowing similar sentiments on Constitutional Hill? Tomorrow his task is to beat State Man, the other 5 hardly count as serious rivals. Get my drift?

​In today’s Racing Post (08/03/23), Bill Barber, the excellent industry editor, gives a technical analysis of the present situation vis-à-vis the disgraceful, and, I suspect, illegal imposition (at least bordering on) of affordability checks on punters, those who are perhaps the backbone of British horse-racing.
I am not a gambler. Nor can I described as a bettor as I infrequently visit my local bookmaker and do not, and never have had, a betting account. For this reason, I have shied well-clear of the debate believing I had no justifiable foot to stand on to air my opinions. Yet, affordability checks do affect me, as indeed they may well in the near present intrude on the lives of people who have no interest in betting and horse racing.
Affordability checks are somewhat similar to the tactics of gangs in the East End of London post the 2nd World War, and the mobsters of New York that threatened shop, club and dance hall owners that if they ‘didn’t pay’ for protection, from whom it was rarely stated, they would find their premises raised to the ground. In this instance, the protection racket is organised by the Gambling Commission, its whispered threat of ‘do as we say or we will take away your licence and throw you out on the street’ as bone-chilling as the knuckleduster or sawn-off shotgun. The bookmakers, as would be expected, are too frightened to stand their ground and without apology pass on the ‘wishes’ of the Gambling Commission by way of imposing outrageous affordability checks on their customers, demanding evidence that they can afford to bet without sending their families into poverty, with the outraged punter having to hand-over to strangers details of their savings, investments, pensions, salaries, mortgages, etc etc. An unholy state of affairs that has all the hallmarks of draconian overreach.
All the while, racing, bookmakers and punters await the long-awaited publication of the government’s white paper setting out rules that must be applied by bookmakers to protect, largely from themselves, vulnerable gamblers and to, no doubt, lend them a helping hand towards counselling and a new life well away from the temptations of betting shops.
My fear is this: what is being enacted by government through the auspices of the Gambling Commission is a trial run with the objective of applying similar tactics and strategies on drinkers of alcohol, smokers and addicts of cream cakes, which will be easily achieved at the advent of the cashless society, which is already being prepared to be rolled out in 2025. Go to the World Economic Forum’s website if you believe me to be a tin-foil hat-wearer.
It sounds dystopian, doesn’t it? A plot lifted from a science fiction B-movie or second-rate novel. Yet, the Dutch government have legislation in place to throw farmers off their land and to return farmland to nature by 2050. A country famous for the vegetable and flowers it produces and sells around the world! Protesting farmers have been shot at by Dutch police, had their tractors overturned and the government have used propaganda and downright lies to vilify them and turn the public against them. Farmers: the enemy! Unbelievable!
It is my belief, though, that the delays in publication of the white paper is a sign that knowing itself to be as unpopular with the British people as the Dutch government is with farmers, the government are desperately seeking compromise, realising the threat to racing’s finances – the Gambling Commission deny advising bookmakers to impose affordability checks – is a threat to the £4-billion bonanza that goes to the Exchequer annually from horse racing and betting. They want to help stop people gambling away their savings but realise that the Gambling Commission are taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Bookmakers could help themselves by voluntarily removing online slot machines from their premises. I suspect this whole debate began with the installation of slot machines in betting shops, with bookmakers looking away while vulnerable people gambled their lives away feeding coins into these money-making machines. Get rid of these damn bookmakers games of chance money pits and the betting shop will overnight become more wholesome, more acceptable for the awful new world being constructed behind our backs.
One more thing: does anyone truly believe that bookmakers would willingly close the accounts of loyal customers, reducing their annual profits, if they were not told to do so, were not intimidated with the threat of unspeakable reprisals if they failed to do as they were asked? 
Someone should take one of the big bookmaking companies to court to seek legal opinion if the scope of affordability checks is fair, just and legal.