Indecision. Constitution Hill has become indecisive. The once-imperious hurdler, a one-time king of conviction, won 10 in a row and now has fallen twice in a row. Tough to fathom. Tougher to watch. Yesterday, he jumped big and bold, counting and calculating, over his hurdles but when faced with pressure, an up tempo in pace and a lack of room, Constitution Hill reverted to the mistake that cost him at Cheltenham in March and nearly cost him at Cheltenham in January. Indecision. Faced with a short short spot or a long long spot at the second-to-last in Thursday’s Aintree Hurdle, he did neither, well, he did both. He started to go, put down and crashed out.
The 8-year-old has always flown close to the sun; standing off and skipping over hurdles, inches to spare, a decisive, never-in-doubt, polished, professional hurdler. And then it changed. In the public sphere, which is the only view we have, perhaps it was at the last of the Unibet Hurdle when he started to go, then changed his mind, a lurch instead of a liftoff. He survived that day, but is that when the window of indecision opened? Two years older, not the swashbuckling youngster anymore, an older more mature tempered adult. Things change. Free love doesn’t last forever.
Not a trainer’s fault, you can be sure, the master Nicky Henderson has done all he can do. And the mistakes Constitution Hill is making can’t be replicated at home. These are heat-of-the-moment miscues. With the reins over his head, he popped the last and cantered under the wire. A pony over a ground pole.
A jockey’s fault? Nico De Boinville has ridden him the same way he’s ridden him his whole career. Sure, he could have tried to barge through when horses, including eventual winner Lossiemouth, loomed wide and hemmed him into a spot. Sure, he could have been more definitive and asked for a long one or checked for a short one but hindsight is an undefeated, unblemished foe. And, bottom line, the old Constitution Hill would have handled it, fixed it, overcome it. Skip over the hurdle, make the last run, win the race. But this is not the old Constitution Hill.
No, this is a fallible, questioning Constitution Hill. A once natural action has turned into a hesitant inaction. And, when I say hesitant, it’s a millisecond. Go or no, but don’t dare think about it. In the world’s best hurdle races, against the best of the best, there is no room for doubt, no space for thought.
A skip over a hurdle, a toss to first…
Constitution Hill, steeplechasing’s Steve Sax…Chuck Knoblauch…Rick Ankiel. Not exactly, but certainly exacting.
