Ahead of Constitution Hill's confidence building run on the Flat at Southwell on Friday, Timeform's jumps editor Dan Barber outlines the extraordinary heights Constitution Hill reached at his peak and draws comparisons with another star who emerged from a period in the doldrums.
Wider sport is littered with heroic comeback stories by apparently fallen greats but rarely has a potential equine one like that facing Constitution Hill reared its head in the near-eighty year period Timeform have been rating racehorses.
For starters, Constitution Hill reached such a rarefied level; his peak Timeform figure of 177 has him behind only bona-fide two-mile hurdling greats like Istabraq (180) and Night Nurse (182), yet it was achieved in a Supreme Novices' Hurdle rather than an open Grade 1 race, which always gave rise to the belief this was a hurdler set to break all ceilings in terms of ratings.
That elite level meant he strode into his first Champion Hurdle a perfect five from five over hurdles and fully 10 lb clear of a subsequent Champion Hurdle winner in State Man, a gap that, if anything, proved to undersell his superiority as he dismissed that main rival by an emphatic nine-length margin (replay below).
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But it's arguable the cracks began to appear before the season's end, as in the Aintree Hurdle on his final outing he was much less impressive in landing much shorter odds (15/2-on) by a third of his Champion Hurdle winning margin. And his next three wins - his last ones at the time of writing - didn't require Constitution Hill to be within a stone of his peak rating on bare form.
Constitution Hill's current Timeform figure of 166x attempts to take into account those lowered standards, with the symbol there to denote the major doubts over his jumping nowadays thanks to three falls from his four starts since. But his imperiousness at his best was so vast that his reduced rating still has him top-rated with Timeform in a Champion Hurdle shorn of the likes of State Man, Sir Gino and potentially Lossiemouth as well should she again head for the Mares' Hurdle.
Comparisons with Sprinter Sacre
Which calls to mind the only equivalent comparison at the top level of modern times and how the task facing Constitution Hill feels so alike, similarities that don't begin and end with the identity of the trainer, Nicky Henderson.
Sprinter Sacre exceeded even Constitution Hill's level of form according to Timeform ratings, with only Arkle and Flyingbolt in its history having bettered his 192 under either code. Yet he arrived at Cheltenham, much like Constitution Hill will this year, with his air of invincibility long since dented, having suffered a serious physical problem when pulling up in the 2013 Desert Orchid at Kempton, a flop that was followed by three more defeats in 2024/15 that would have been unthinkable in his pre-setback pomp.
A successful return in the Shloer the following campaign rekindled the positivity, but a scramble in that season's Desert Orchid meant he headed to the Champion Chase his biggest ever SP (5/1) at that point. The rest is history, as they say, yet the analytical point of fact shows that Sprinter Sacre's final Queen Mother represented a 20 lb inferior performance compared to his prime. And that's the scenario facing Constitution Hill in March - he surely isn't what he was, but that 'was' represented a gap to his contemporaries so vast that even a lower-calibre version could still be enough to subdue inferiors in a Championship race.
Sprinter Sacre retired as an all-time great and Constitution Hill arguably deserves to do the same. But recapturing his crown at Cheltenham - regardless of what happens at Southwell on Friday in between - would remove even a shred of doubt about that status. A potential Prestbury Perk-Up to rival, say, The Miracle At Medinah.
Also read:
David Ord on the big decision that's still to come
Timeform's highest-rated hurdlers (based on peak end-of-season rating)
- 182 Night Nurse
- 180 Istabraq
- 180 Monksfield
- 179 Persian War
- 178 Comedy of Errors
- 177 Constitution Hill
- 177 Lanzarote
- 177 Limestone Lad
Timeform's current highest-rated two-mile hurdlers
- 167 State Man
- 166x Constitution Hill
- 164 Sir Gino
- 161p The New Lion
- 158 Lossiemouth*
- 157 Brighterdaysahead*
*Would receive 7 lb sex allowance in Champion Hurdle
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