Constitution Hill won the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, the opening race of the Cheltenham festival on Tuesday. It was a one-two for trainer Nicky Henderson with Jonbon finishing second.
As he and Henderson stood in the winner's enclosure after the race, owner Michael Buckley told ITV, "We're trying to get Barry Geraghty's kids up there [for the presentation] who all rode this horse when it was three-years-old. He can even manage to have a two or three-year-old on his back." Henderson bought the horse from Geraghty for Buckley.
From schooling with @BarryJGeraghty's daughter as a three-year-old, to an emphatic Supreme winner!
Constitution Hill is special 🙌 #CheltenhamFestival2022 pic.twitter.com/X5PIeTNVMN
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) March 15, 2022
Constitution Hill won the race in 3:44, eliciting thoughts that he might be a future Champion Hurdle runner.
"That was awesome," said Henderson.
"I know what the second horse is. I would have been very surprised if anything could have done that to Jonbon. He must be an extraordinary animal.
"It was funny, the hype horse earlier on in the year was Jonbon. Then, this fella sort of woke up from his slumbers at home, and I stopped bothering Barry asking what was this slow go that he'd flogged me. We suddenly realised that he was actually very good.
"He's been very good, but the big question is how much he actually knew. He's only run in two hurdle races with four runners in each. To go out there at that gallop... That's the extraordinary thing, he can travel so easy at that pace, and then pick it up. To find gears at the end of a headlong gallop like that is extraordinary."
Constitution Hill wins Supreme Novices at Cheltenham
CONSTITUTION HILL! 👏
What a brilliant win in the Supreme!#CheltenhamFestival pic.twitter.com/gxfIRF3Lb9
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) March 15, 2022
Featured image: by Seb Daly/Sportsfile
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