Hurdling or Chasing

Chasing or Hurdling

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    18
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The Plan is: Constitution Hill will be schooled over fences that is now 100% certain.

For those who missed it only a handful of people will be present according to Nico.

If he really pleases they will make an announcement re chasing if he does not he said no one will ever know and he'll stay hurdling.

Kind straonge thing to say but that is what the man said.
 
I doubt if the outspoken David Jennings has a scoobie doo what will happen. Nico rides the horse and he doesn't know.

Jennings is like every other reporter out there out to make a living.

"If it doesn't exist invent it" which is easy to do because paper never refuses ink.

If he is proved correct he'll soon remind us "Told You so"

If he is wrong "Total Silence" no one will remember anyway.
 
I'd be very surprised if he jumped a fence. Energumene is a top champion chaser and el fabiola looks top class. I hope he does but wouldn't back him to beat the current champion as he looked better than ever IMHO at Cheltenham. There was no need for anybody to say anything on the subject bar we will think about it. Sounds as if they are not that confident he will be as good over fences.
 
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You need to have alook at the form book my friend. El Fabiolo met Jonbon and there was a neck between them. Then Jonbon ran like a stuffed pig hardly got 1 fence right and still ran him to 6 lengths. Constitution Hill beat Jonbon out of sight fair and square ane never cam out of 2nd gear.

As for Energymene he's ona par with Shishkin when he's 100%. If you even suggested to anyone at Seven Barrows that Shishkin is as good as Constutution Hill they would laugh in your face.

If you asked Nico which horse is the best he has ever ridden and he was being honest I'd bet he would say Constitution Hill over Sprinter Sacre and we all know what he would have done to the currect crop.

If he does go chasing aiming for the Arkle would be a complete waste of a season as nothing would take him on.....Master Minded went straight to the QMCC and he wouldn't hold a candle to this horse.
 
Actually they didn’t have a choice of a novice campaign with Master Minded as he’d won a couple of chases in France but agree he was nowhere near the same level


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Tanlic, Master Minded went straight to the QMCC because he wasn't a novice; having won a chase as a 4yo in France.

What is abundantly clear (to me, at least) from the way Henderson has managed Constitution Hill's career to-date, is that he isn't in the business of rushing him. The horse is still only a 6yo, and has plenty of time on his side.

Far from it bring a "waste of time", connections are much more likely to view a novice-chase campaign as a critical part of his education over fences. He is a million to run in the Champion Chase next season.
 
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Behave Grassy the auteuil fences are 2" higher than a hurdle plus you can brush through them.

He did have race experiance but was no great shakes in France but won the QMCC on only his 4th run over proper fences in the UK and one of them he Unseated Sam Thomas in.

Nicky has always said novices for Novices but this horse is already raed by many as the best hurdler of all time.

if he jumps to go for the Arkle when he has nothing to represent him in the QMCC it must be very tempting.

Sprinter Sacre would have pissed up if he had gone for it he was so far ahead of everything but Nicky as I said earlier had Finian's Rainbow, owned by none other than Miachael Buckley, who went on to beat Sizing Europe anyway.

We all know what Sprinter did to Sizing Europe the following year beating him in a canter by 19 lengths..

I doubt if beating Energymene will be any more difficult for CH than kicking the Arkle fav into touch...........and Nicky loves the money.

If he is as good as I think he'll go QMCC Marsh 2m.4f at Aintree and then its all ahead to the King George..........pissing about winning an Arkle with ahorse like him you got to be kiddin
 
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No-one is disputing how good Constitution Hill is, and that isn't the point being debated anyway.

The point being debated is whether he will go chasing, and if he does, whether he will go into open company in his novice season. On all known evidence, this would be wildly outside Henderson's comfort zone - regardless of whether he "loves the money" or not.
 
I can’t believe that the wild notion of Constitution Hill going for the QMCC (assuming he goes chasing at all) after what would be a maximum of 3 runs over fences, and skipping a full novice campaign has somehow stretched to 4 pages.

The lull between Cheltenham & Aintree…
 
I just listened to Ruby Walsh and Rory Delargy discussing this. Rory said he would be greedy and stay doing what they know he is good at. Rory on the otherhand said Michael Buckly is thinking about a legacy and would like to take big steps forward and that Novice chasing would be a complete waste of time for him......He then added that Nicky would probably want to stay hurdling like Ruby.

I can see where both are coming from and if he does go chasing I maintain he will go QMCC and forward and upwards

No sense in having a Pele in your team and playing him in the reserves during the world cup.
 
Tanlic said:
I can see where both are coming from and if he does go chasing I maintain he will go QMCC and forward and upwards

No sense in having a Pele in your team and playing him in the reserves during the world cup.
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A bit like playing the under-16s world champions in the world cup more like!
 
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Pele was 16 when he played un the Qualifiers and 17 in the World Cup finals.

Like him Constituion Hill is the highest rated novice in history.

If he he goes chasing and jumps a clear round and met Energymene in only his 3rd or 4th chase he beat him doing handstands.
The arkle winner cant jump for sht but has a good engine but compared to Constitution Hill he's a snail

Cast your mind back to Xmas 2011 when Peddlars Cross who had won 9 races on the trot then ran Hurricane Fly to 1/12 lengths in the Champion Hurdle
was having his 3rd chase having won both his chases beforehand and was a short piced fav for the Arkle.
Sprinter Scare who had failed to get home in the Supreme in comparison was barely out of his nappies and went off second fav.

He treated Peddlars Cross like a selling plater and he would have beaten any 2 milers around at the time without coming out of a canter.

His stable companion was in the QMCC and won it and Sprinter was already rated 12 lbs his superior by the handicapper.

I am all but certain Nicky would have gone QMCC if it had not been for Finians Rainbow being owned by Michael Buckley.

However the question remains is Constitution Hill going to be as good a jumper as Sprinter Scare.

That is a huge ask as far as I am concerned as he was the best jumper of a fence I ever saw.
 
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Henderson may be cautious, but Buckley has a dream and maybe a tad impatient to get on with it. At 77 he is getting on a bit and hadn’t he been on a drip in hospital a day or so before the race.
 
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Just a brief one: Nicky said after the race' "I remember sitting down and wondering what to do with Altior" ' He could have won the Champion Hurdle but we sent him chasing and he won 19"
 
Tanlic said:
Just a brief one: Nicky said after the race' "I remember sitting down and wondering what to do with Altior" ' He could have won the Champion Hurdle but we sent him chasing and he won 19"
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He said, " we can send Altior chasing next year and win the champion hurdle with Buveur D'Air"


He's sitting there now saying, "CH goes chasing over my dead body"
 
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This thread has gone full mental! One lad essentially trying to convince himself he's right, despite all evidence suggesting otherwise, and everyone else for some reason trying to explain that black is in fact black!
 
Tanlic said:
am I? Thought you knew me better than that:lol: He wins the Champion Hurdle I win If he wins the Arkle I win if he wins the QMCC I win.......

do the sums yourself ......10 pts on the Champion Hurdle 5 pts on the Arkle 5 pts on the QMCC that's why I only get 5/4 but it is a very likely bet to nothing

I'd say unless his wheels fall off he'll win one of them and although profits for the first 2 are minimal who knows what Nicky will do?
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There's one fundamental floor in all of this; if he's as good as you think and if Buckley is short on time and has a dream to fulfill a legacy, then he's just as likely to go straight for the Gold cup as he is the Arkle and QMCC. That assumption is founded on your methodology!!!

Michael Buckley wants Nicky Henderson to train the landmark number of 10 Champion hurdle winners, moreover, he wants to be a part of that landmark, inturn this will ultimately be the driving force behind the decision to stay hurdling....
 
Maxbet said:
He said, " we can send Altior chasing next year and win the champion hurdle with Buveur D'Air"


He's sitting there now saying, "CH goes chasing over my dead body"
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The difference is I am staing a fact what the man said and you are making up fairy stories.
 
Beef or Salmon said:
This thread has gone full mental! One lad essentially trying to convince himself he's right, despite all evidence suggesting otherwise, and everyone else for some reason trying to explain that black is in fact black!
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What eveidence?.....there is no evidence of anything one way or another unless you have been living as a fly on Nicky Henderson's wall.

It would be circumstantial evidence in a court of law but the fact they are 100% going to school him would indicate what? is it because they have no intentions of going chasing or would you say they are considering it?:blink:
 
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Tanlic said:
The difference is I am stating a fact what the man said and you are making up fairy stories.
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You are not stating facts at all, you are stating wishful thinking...

Here are the words from Buckley's mouth....

"We’ve honestly just got as far as this season. If he’s fine and well then we’ll go for the Aintree Hurdle and worry about his life on the racecourse in the summer.

"There’s an attraction for me, on the one hand, to move on to chasing and trying to do a Dawn Run but there’s another attraction in trying to win another Champion Hurdle – that would be Nicky’s tenth.

"There are masses of pluses either way, I just pray the horse stays sound and he can try and hopefully become one of the great National Hunt horses. In age terms, he’s just at the beginning of his life."


Note..."a Dawn Run"...not an Altior or a Sprinter Sacre, a Dawn Run....3m 2f Gold Cup!

That's if he stays sound after getting Nicky his 10th CHAMPION HURDLE!
 
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