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'It’s sad, it’s really sad'
You’re watching the race and not for the first time can’t believe what you’re seeing.
But it’s true. The phone is buzzing, WhatsApp groups busily discussing it in real-time.
Constitution Hill, for the third time in four starts, has fallen.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Back in the spring of 2023 we were just waiting for the moment he produced the performance that the rating gurus were able to hold up their ten paddles for and confirm him the greatest hurdler of the modern era.
Now it seems rather than being at a crossroads we’re reaching the end of the journey.
A good summer, hiccup free autumn and bullish noises from home, had offered hope that the horrors of last spring were a blip.
But as he runs free with Nico de Boinville laying prone on the Gosforth Park turf, they’re back and you’re reminded of a golfer battling the yips on a putting green, a bowler unable to release the ball on his delivery stride. He's a horse who has forgotten how to do something that was so natural to him before.
How is there a way back from this? A safe route to return Constitution Hill to former glories?
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