Constitution Hill wins under Ryan Moore

Constitution Hill gets BHA Flat rating of 101 after two all-weather novice successes

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Tue March 31, 2026 · 14 min ago

Constitution Hill has been given a Flat handicap mark of 101 by the BHA after his two successes in novice company on the all-weather.

Nicky Henderson's horse had an official rating of 175 at his peak over jumps and with the Flat horses on a different scale a top-class horse on the level is usually rated 120 or above.

Frankel, the greatest Flat horse in modern history, had a mark of 140.

The 101 figure is based largely on his explosive nine-and-a-half length victory on his Flat debut at Southwell on February 20, after a slow gallop at Kempton on March 25 didn't allow him to be quite so impressive.

BHA handicapper Adam Barnes was responsible for calculating the figure and he explained his process on the BHA podcast on Tuesday.

He said: "It’s pretty clear they didn’t go very quick [at Kempton] and that is backed up by the sectionals. They had a finishing speed of around 110 per cent for the race, which is finishing a fair bit faster than par. They’ve gone steady, he’s been held up in fourth or fifth and conceded first run to the runner-up, but he still picked him up readily and did what he had to do.

"If you wanted to be picky about it you could say the field was fairly bunched and the proximity of the third and a couple of the others holds down the level a little bit more compared to what we saw at Southwell – that form had a bit more substance and a bit more ability to rate it higher.

"But essentially it was job done and maybe getting onto turf with a bit of cut in the ground and a stronger-run race, he could certainly run to a good bit higher figure than he was allowed to run to at Kempton.

"His Southwell win was a very visually impressive performance and the form has a really solid look to it.

"It’s hard to say exactly what he had in hand at Southwell. The bare form would have been a low to mid-90s performance and I’ve added half a dozen lengths of poundage on top of that, just because of the style of the win.

"He’s going to be rated 101, which is a high figure for a horse coming out of novices, but could potentially turn out to be a lenient figure for a horse like him with the ability we know he’s got from being such a high-class hurdler and he retains plenty of that ability."

With the Group 3 John Porter Stakes at Newbury on April 18 a potential next start for the nine-year-old, Barnes says he will have to improve on the form he has shown on the Flat so far to get involved.

"It will be interesting to see how high he can go in the Flat sphere," he said. "Connections have mentioned the John Porter as a possible next target, that is a well established Group 3 and generally you’d want to be running to around 110 plus to get really involved in a race like that.

"Over the last decade winners have ranged from around 106 up to 115. William Haggas has mentioned horses like Hamish or Al Aasy could go there and they’re rated 117 and 115, so that gives you an idea of the kind of level he’ll need to be at to win a race like that.

"Whether he wins it or not, they’ll have plenty of options either in Group races or in good handicaps in the season ahead.

"I think a Group 3 like the John Porter is a realistic target to find out where he sits. If he were to win that then obviously they can look at bigger Group-race targets, or if he were just to run well without winning a race like the Ebor would be a possible target as well. That low-100s figure would probably be ideal for a race like that."

Constitution Hill is the 8/1 favourite with Sky Bet and Paddy Power for the Sky Bet Ebor Handicap at York in August.

Constitution Hill gets BHA Flat rating of 101 after two all-weather novice successes

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