Michael Buckley told those who think Constitution Hill should be retired following his run in Italy on Sunday to "wind their necks in".
He was responding after reading Chris Cook's Front Runner article on the Racing Post website in which the journalist found two repeated themes from the fall-out to his run at San Siro on Sunday, when fifth behind Stingray - namely 'it's about greed' and 'retire him'.
Cook argued they need to be 'challenged' for racing's sake and the gelding's owner did just that on Monday's Nick Luck Daily Podcast.
He said: “First of all I’ve got to say, and Nicky felt the same way, I’ve never seen the horse look any better, or as well as he did yesterday. He looked absolutely magnificent, happy and relaxed. His work has been exemplary up to this and I don’t think Nicky felt he’d ever worked better.
“So I think we were in great shape to run a good race and I think it’s a little unfortunate we weren’t a little closer to the pace, the sort of idea was to be third or fourth and I don’t know quite what happened, I haven’t seen a replay, but we sort of broke well and dropped back.
“I’m not giving Rossa Ryan a hard time but just feel it was unfortunate to be so far back, but he ran well. Contrary to the hopes of many on social media, we’ll probably have another go at something - not in Milan but something similar in the future."
As for the some of the negative reaction to the run - which ran alongside plenty of positive messages too on various social media platforms, Buckley continued: “I think people know how much Nicky cares for horses. One of the things he’s always shown in his career is that he cares for horses and I remember when people started buying horses from France and it became extremely fashionable there were various comments about how they burned out quite quickly with most people but they lasted much longer with Nicky.
“I think that’s because he’s careful, he doesn’t over-race them, he’s not over-greedy, doesn’t faze horses and he cares a lot for them – and I do too.
“I don’t get social media, mentally in many ways, and I don’t subscribe to it. But I’m referring to an article that Chris Cook wrote on the Racing Post website referring to it and I think people need to wind their necks in, frankly. To come out and say 'we’re only here because we’re greedy'. The cost of getting the horses around the world is pretty fierce and he’s taking on good horses, Dubai Honour beat him by a nostril and we were in front of him 30 or 40 yards from the post. He (Dubai Honour) has been around the world, won £5.4milliom, won three Group Ones and was second in a Group One last time.
“These are hard horses to beat, they’re experienced, knocking towards top quality on the flat, and so we’re having an adventure, the horse is loving it, he could not be happier. He came out with two lads, one was Jayden who looks after him all the time and also another who is with his wife at Nicky’s and is Italian, so there were no problems with the language along the way.
“I saw Chris Cook said people were saying we’re greedy, we should retire the horse, but if the horse was showing any signs he’d had enough, if he wasn’t so incredibly enthusiastic about racing and his life, we probably would retire him.
“And to come out with comments like 'he owes us nothing'. Who are these 'us'? They’re just people sitting there making comments. He doesn’t belong to ‘us’, he actually belongs to Nicky and me and the hundreds, and hundreds and hundreds of fans who love this horse to death and will do anything to see him go on racing.
“So these knockers need to just wind their necks in and leave us all alone. This horse is spoilt to death, there is nothing he wants for at any moment in his life. He even had a special box built so he can go out and roll around in his paddock whenever he feels like it.
“He was so happy and so relaxed yesterday, and again last night after the race. There were no ill-effects from it, he was bouncing around. People don’t appreciate how much care and love goes into looking after these horses.
“So, sorry guys, we’re going to be doing this again all being well.”
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