constitution hill, i am not alone, lincoln & hewick.

​When Nicky Henderson said on I.T.V. in the aftermath of the Champion Hurdle that Constitution Hill would run next at Punchestown I was, well, let us say, surprised. Constitution Hill was reported as in good health and yet, even though the horse had only one proper race all season after a twelve-month or more ‘holiday’, he would not be going to Aintree for a race he has won previously.
I hate myself for throwing criticism at the master of Seven Barrows as his career record should allow him the honour of never being questioned by nobodies like me. 
Yes, Constitution Hill had to pull out most of the stops for the first time in his career at Kempton on Boxing Day. But his next race at Cheltenham, even if he closed his eyes and played to the crowd at the last hurdle, was a romp in the park. And in the Champion Hurdle he had only half a race; he would have exerted himself more fully in a gallop at home. So, yes, he should be running at Aintree, and all being well going on to Punchestown in hope of gaining revenge on the usurpers to his crown.
And Mr.Henderson has announced that all being well, as long as the schooling goes without a hitch and the horse has no more health issues, though nothing is set in stone, the plan now is for Constitution Hill to run at both Aintree and Punchestown. So, no criticism from me. As usual, Nicky Henderson, if only eventually, has made the right call. Personally, I would follow him over the hill and into the valley of death.
I just hope there is no eleventh-hour change of plan for Hyland, my horse for this year’s Aintree National.

I am not alone in wishing J.P. McManus would give his home-breds a better type of name. Mr. John Peacock of Northallerton, in a letter in today’s Racing Post, agrees with my thoughts, as did another letter-writer who described the winner as carrying overweight of eighteen-characters. 
As with Nicky Henderson, I hate myself being critical of anything that J.P. says or does. He is a saint amongst men. And again, I would follow him over the hill into the valley of death. He is, I believe, the greatest man in the history of National Hunt. It is not, though, as if Inothewayurthinkin is the worst name he has given a horse, there are worse, it is just this a very very good horse, with a lovely kind character.

This time in the calendar my over-riding thought is ‘damn it, the flat starts again in a few days.’ I am not someone who lives the winter anticipating the Craven meeting and wondering how last-season’s two-year-olds have trained on. I am proudly in the Captain Tim Forster camp who was of the opinion the flat should be banned. Well, I do not go that far. The flat, at least, gives National Hunt an annual holiday. Or it used to.
Once upon a time, back in the good old days before colour television, the Lincoln Handicap was as big a betting race as the Grand National. It was not unusual for fields of forty-runners to line up behind the barriers. It was a race all the top jockeys wanted to win. Nowadays it is just another mile handicap, which is sad and brings no credit to the sport, the B.H.A., Doncaster or the history of the race.
Coupled with flat racing starting with a whimper, the Lincoln Handicap is a race in need of an overhaul, a little razzmatazz to return it to its glory days. My answer is radical. I have aired my thoughts on this site and in letters to the Racing Post. But people, it seems, care as little for my proposal as they do for the Lincoln itself. Perhaps I will reprise my ‘big idea’ tomorrow or during the week. If I remember. I will leave myself a note as mental notes these days are as reliable as Chatbot A.I. (Read the story about the Norwegian guy who, according to a chatbot (whatever that happens to be) had murdered his wife and two children, when both are still alive and living with their husband and father). When A.I. gets something wrong, it is described as an hallucination. But I diverge from the subject matter.

As much as I hope Nicky Henderson gets his deserved National winner in a fortnight, the best story would be if Hewick were to win, as Shark Hanlon seems to expect. Of course, the dead horse on the trailer story will be rehashed and no doubt embellished by the seamier sider of journalism, but after the knee-jerk punishment metred out to Shark for such a trivial ‘offence’ there would be a kind of justice if Hewick, the £800 buy, could add an Aintree National to his hoard of big race trophies.