Constitution Hill won the International Hurdle at Cheltenham

The star two mile hurdler faced little in the way of opposition in the race known as the International Hurdle as his starting price of 1/12 indicated.

It was plain sailing for Nicky Henderson's unbeaten star which hasn't always proved the case with Constitution Hill's rather fragile nature not living up to his name.

Henderson and his team have had a relatively clear run of late though and Constitution Hill's appearance was a welcome and unexpected one on Trials Day, sprinkling some stardust on proceedings with racegoers keen to catch a glimpse of one of the sport's most celebrated stars in 'competitive' action.

"He's coming out to play," Henderson said pre-race in the parade ring and Constitution Hill duly toyed with rivals who were rated 29lbs and more inferior.

Brentford Hope did give him a lead for the first part of the race but Nico de Boinville had had enough and eased Constitution Hill into the lead approaching five out in the back straight.

He never appeared to come out of first gear and the field did close up a little approaching the last where Constitution Hill made an uncharacteristic blunder that caused a few gasps from the crowd.

"My heart was in my mouth," said De Boinville.

"He was just doing it so easily and he was either on a long one or just going to fiddle away and he's done something in the middle but he found a leg and that was fine. He wouldn't even blow a candle out here, he's hardly blowing.

"It's fantastic and to have him back at Cheltenham as well, it's great that everyone has come to see him. Delighted with him, just angry at myself really."

For the record, Brentford Hope rallied to beat the remainder to finish a three length second.

This time last year we were in a good place and it all went wrong

A relieved Henderson said: "He was very good, of course he was. Once he gets the bit between his teeth, as they say, he was off and there's no point holding him up from thereon; nothing was going to take him along. He enjoyed himself and I suppose if anything he was just getting a little bit dreamy at the last.

"Nico said 'I should really have given him a boot and it would have woken him' up but why?

"Nico says I've got to work him tomorrow! Having come here and done that, as long as he's alright tomorrow, it makes our life a lot easier; it saves an awful lot of galloping at home.

"He does need the work now. He's a different sort of person again at the moment, he's rougher and tougher in a funny way. He's really enjoying what he's doing and we pretend we're enjoying what we're doing. It's great when it's done and it's great to see the crowd here today.

"We all missed him a lot last year. To come back and to be able to come here again, I didn't think after Kempton this was a likely step but he was just so well we had to do it and everybody connected with him has just been so happy with him, it seemed the obvious thing to do.

"Last year was just one of those nightmares [when a bug ruled a number of his runners out of the Cheltenham Festival, including Constitution Hill from the Champion Hurdle] and we've got five or six weeks to go and they won't be comfortable. We're very lucky, we've got quite a good crew to join him I hope, but it's now our job to get them there in the form they're in at the moment to be honest with you.

"That's the slightly scary thing at the moment, we know what happened last year. This time last year we were in a good place and it all went wrong, we've just got to get our heads down and try and get them there as they are now. They're in great form and everybody has done a terrific job, it's been a good winter so far and that's due to big teamwork."

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