Nicky Henderson has further emphasised that next month’s Aintree Hurdle could be Constitution Hill’s last run over the smaller obstacles.
The Champion Hurdle star heads to Merseyside with the focus very much on next season and whether or not the Michael Buckley-owned, unbeaten six-year-old will switch to fences.
Speaking at his Seven Barrows yard in Lambourn on Thursday about what the future might hold for the son of Blue Bresil, Henderson said: “It’s possible Aintree could be his last run over hurdles. Everything is possible.
“There are more opportunities over fences to start with, which would lead to the Arkle and the Champion Chase or maybe even the Gold Cup if he stays. A real superstar is a horse that can adapt to everything.”
Asked when a decision will be made, Henderson explained: “It’ll certainly all happen after Aintree. Michael was down here the other day and we said what we would probably try and do is, about 10 days after Aintree, if the ground hasn’t dried up too quickly, we’ll school him over fences here [at Seven Barrows] and that’ll give us an idea.
Constitution Hill heads up the gallops at Seven Barrows under Nico de Boinville
“Then we have the whole summer to sit down and discuss, but if we’ve had one look at him schooling over fences Nico (de Boinville) will know, and Michael and I will know, pretty well what are the options then.
“If he’s very, very good we’ve got two options. If he’s very, very bad – which is unlikely but anything is possible – his hurdling and his way of crossing a hurdle is very, very effective, but you can’t do that over fences.
Trainer Nicky Henderson is confident Constitution Hill will adapt to jumping fences
“He’s got to learn to jump rather than hurdle. It could be that he’s got totally the wrong technique, I don’t know. But I’d be very surprised.
“He’s such an intelligent horse that I think he’ll soon realise, probably by actually just rubbing a fence, that he’ll say ‘oh wow, somebody’s raised the bar and now we’ll do something about it’. It’ll probably take him one mistake to work it out and a lot of sensible horses will work it out.”