Nicky Henderson: “He has already posted two very good efforts over course and distance”

With another big weekend of racing ahead, I thought it would be prudent to err on the side of caution with regards to the participation of many of our runners over the next two days due to the weather which has been truly atrocious.

We are prepared for heavy ground, and I have left a lot of horses in, and taken some out, notably City Chief who would not like humping top weight around over three miles in very testing conditions, so he’s out, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow before making decisions on any of the others.

Obviously, Constitution Hill is the horse everyone is interested in, and we will be monitoring the situation very closely. I’ve spoken to Nico and Michael and we all want to run, which his why he has been declared, but it may not be entirely in his best interests, or welfare, to run on ground like it might be. The Christmas Hurdle is very close so we need to take that into consideration, but the horse’s well-being is paramount and one has to bear in mind it could set him back much further than Kempton on Boxing Day, because we don’t want to jeopardise his chance of winning another Unibet Champion Hurdle. If it is attritional, we have to be able to reconsider, and I know it will be disappointing for everyone, but Constitution Hill will always come first and that is where we draw the line.

Perhaps I’m being very pessimistic, and the ground might be nowhere near as bad as I’m expecting, but I just wanted to warn people that we are assessing the situation and do not want to run him on terrible ground just for the sake of it and potentially jeopardise his whole season.

SANDOWN

12:40

Goblet Of Fire (Nico de Boinville)

He stayed a mile and a quarter on the flat, and appeared to handle soft ground, although the going will be a different kettle of fish altogether here; but he has schooled well and is an interesting recruit to the juvenile hurdling ranks, of which we have a few to come out in the next few weeks or so.

1:50

Southoftheborder (Nico de Boinville)

He won his Point to Point, Bumper, Maiden Hurdle and is a horse we like a lot. I was impressed with him around here last time where he stayed on nicely up the hill, so the step up to two and a half will suit and this will tell us a lot more as to where he stands in the pecking order.

3:35

Immortal (Nico de Boinville)

I was a little bit disappointed with him at Ascot last time, but perhaps he didn’t quite get the trip, so we’re dropping him right back to two miles and I hope it will be enough to see him break his Maiden tag. We’ve always thought a great deal of him, and he has already posted two very good efforts over course and distance.

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