hold on a minute - remember samcro!

​Samcro last ran under rules in the 2022 Grand National. Not what people a few years earlier were predicting for him. Winning one or numerous Champion Hurdles was to be his destiny, at least according to that equine expert known as Matt Chapman. Or several Cheltenham Gold Cups. The racing world was Samcro’s oyster, it seemed. Samcro is now to run in point-to-points. Not a case of how the mighty have fallen as Samcro never reached the heights of the mighty.
I mention Samcro in the same breath as Constitution Hill as evidence for him being acclaimed ‘the second coming’, because as things stand his form closely resembles that of Samcro at a similar stage of his career. Now, don’t think for one moment I am the one dissenter when it comes to Constitution Hill. Potentially, he could easily be the great horse great men are predicting. But let’s not get carried away. He has run in five races, winning them all with ease, of course, but can anyone say, hand on heart, that beating Epatante 12-lengths, with Not So Sleepy only a few lengths behind her, is worthy of a Racing Post rating of 176?
According to the Racing Post, Constitution Hill is the third best 2-mile hurdler of modern times, with only Istabraq and Faugheen above him, with the likes of Alderbrook and Hurricane Fly (really) trailing in his wake. Utter nonsense, of course.
Ratings really are bollocks when a horse that has only run 5-times and is without a Champion Hurdle crown to his name, is rated higher than a horse that twice won the Champion Hurdle, with, is it, eighteen Grade 1’s to his name and is rated by Ruby Walsh as the best hurdler he ever rode. Incidentally, just to emphasise my antipathy towards ratings, Collier Bay achieved the same rating according to the Racing Post as Hurricane Fly! Really! Hands up anyone who is of the opinion that Collier Bay could even get within ten-lengths of Hurricane Fly?
And just to finish with ratings. Though the mares allowance is a brilliant innovation, when it comes to ratings it works mercilessly against mares. Referring again to Racing Post ratings, Dato Star, Collier Bay, Rooster Booster, Binocular and Kribensis, are all rated clear of Honeysuckle, twice the winner of the Champion Hurdler and unbeaten in 16 starts. Again, hands up anyone who believes any of the above could beat Honeysuckle, with or without the mares allowance?
Constitutional Hill is a wonderful horse with the racing world at his feet. It is obvious that Nicky Henderson believes he is the best he has ever trained, or at least potentially better than Sprinter Sacre in his pomp, and who better to recognise a great horse than the master of Seven Barrows. But until he beats Honeysuckle, and that’s no given as the mare only ever does enough to win and might be saving for herself more than enough to frighten the livings out of Constitution Hill come March, I refuse to join in with the hyperbole, as I refused to join in the hype over Samcro.
That said, God he does look mighty.

Although the racing was top-draw last Saturday, with L’Homme Presse particularly impressive, and to a lesser degree First Street, the day was overshadowed by the death of Porticello at Newbury. The Moore family are all brave, successful and a credit to the sport but for all that fate likes nothing more than piercing their lives with razor-cuts to the heart. Porticello had chaser written all over him and like Constitution Hill had the potential to make the equine world his playground. When fatalities occur the public never get to see a playback of the race so my thoughts are guesswork framed by a bias I have against British hurdles.
It is profoundly unfair bordering on accidents waiting to happen to ask a horse, especially a horse tiring at the end of a race, to jump a moving object. I do not know if Porticello was brought down by a swinging hurdle but it does happen and many horses have either lost their lives or been injured by a horse in front knocking the hurdle over, resulting in the horse directly behind having little chance other than to blunder into the hurdle as it swings back to its original position. In no equine sport are horses expected to jump moving obstacles and I wish British racing could replace the tradition hurdle with the small chase fence obstacles used on the continent and occasionally in this country, though Haydock for whatever reason seems to have abandoned them.
The brush obstacles/hurdles have the advantage that horses would only need to learn one method of jumping and surely would make the transition from hurdle to fence so much easier to accomplish. I rest my case.