Nicky Henderson on Constitution Hill and the yips: ‘The best jumper you’ll ever see and he lost it’

Nicky Henderson is 75 years old and, after almost half a century of training horses, he has seen everything in the strange and compelling world of racing. But the extraordinary and still evolving story of his great old horse Constitution Hill makes even Henderson pause in his study. It’s a sunlit afternoon in Lambourn and we’ve just left the mighty but complex horse in his stable.

Standing next to Henderson for a photoshoot, Constitution Hill had been typically calm. He then took a slow walk outside before, having waited patiently for lunch, the horse ambled inside for a good feed. It was all so different to the drama and glory, the disappointment and yearning, that defines the horse’s saga.

“We’re lucky to be curator of this beast,” Henderson says as he describes the privilege and responsibility felt by himself and Michael Buckley, the horse’s owner. “But we don’t think of him as a beast. He’s a pal and, at the same time, so loved by the public. He is a bit unique.”

Henderson’s watery gaze glints as he asks himself a familiar question. “If he was a person who would he be? Clint Eastwood, maybe? As cool as you can be. The only problem is that Clint was a bit too good looking. Clint Eastwood was more of a Sprinter Sacre lookalike.”

Sprinter Sacre was another famous Henderson horse who experienced soaring highs and crushing lows – and public adulation. “He was a really imposing and beautiful horse and, oh, he knew it. Sprinter was the poster boy of racing and he milked it. Whereas Constitution might prick his ears and say hi but then he’d be like: ‘OK, what’s the job today?’”

But Henderson knows that, despite his apparently straightforward nature, Constitution Hill’s story is so tangled it has made the team around him whoop and cry. “He would have to be an amusing person,” Henderson adds with a chuckle. “I think he’d be an intelligent comedian.”

Nico De Boinville and Constitution Hill sprint away from State Man to win the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2023, his greatest victory. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

His string of victories during the first 10 races of his career, exemplified by his imperious win in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham festival in 2023, made experts suggest that Constitution Hill was one of the greatest hurdlers in history. The horse seemed invincible as an incredibly fast and precise jumper. He flew over the hurdles like an arrow, as majestic as he was deadly.

And then, out of nowhere, Constitution Hill somehow forgot how to jump. Like a Masters-winning golfer who succumbs to the yips, this magnificent horse lost all confidence in his jumping ability. He fell in three of his last four races over hurdles.

Even the one race where he managed to stay upright, at Punchestown last May, seemed disastrous. The odds-on favourite finished second last and Timeform, the venerable organisation which had ranked the horse as the best hurdler of the last few decades, lamented a “disconcertingly tame display”.

Grand plans to return to this year’s Cheltenham festival were abandoned. Constitution Hill, instead, produced two stunning victories on the Flat when usually low-key weeknight meetings at Southwell and Kempton in February and March were transformed into glorious celebrations as people, young and old, thronged around him.

Without a hurdle in sight, the horse has looked brilliant again. Henderson has been inundated with invitations from racetracks around the world. There has been wild talk of him trying to win everything from the Melbourne Cup down but Henderson waves away such speculation.

A more realistic route is being followed. The John Porter Stakes at Newbury would represent a considerable step up in competition this Saturday if Henderson deems the ground fit. “It’s not everybody’s idea of the most sensible race for him,” Henderson concedes. “But we might have just another year of this. If he was four or five, you wouldn’t think about doing this race next. But we just want to find out where we belong.”

After the staggering start to his career it was initially hard for Henderson and Buckley to let go of their dream over hurdles. But, ultimately, Henderson made the right decision. “He’s a public hero and I’m asking him to do something that could have risked his life, and a jockey’s. So it was a no-brainer because [one fall] was a coincidence, twice was worrying and three times was too much. He was the best jumper you’ll ever see and he lost it.”

In January 2025 his 10th straight victory in the Unibet Hurdle saw him recover from a rare mistake at the final hurdle. Henderson nods sadly when asked if that was the turning point? “That’s right. Until then he had been brilliantly accurate every time.”

Did Henderson solve the conundrum as to why Constitution Hill lost all conviction when jumping? “We went through this time and again with the likes of Yogi Breisner [the renowned equestrian coach who has helped iron out the kinks in so many horses over jumps]. I have files full of hundreds of letters from kind people writing to tell me what to do. We also had all sorts of gurus coming to see us from around the world. One guy came from Australia and said he could fix him. But I’m afraid it didn’t work.”

For Henderson, “the only logical reason that makes any sense is these new padded hurdles they now use. I don’t like them and Constitution never liked them. When he fell for a second and then a third time it was cruel on the horse, and it was pretty cruel on us. In the buildup to Punchestown he had been jumping well again. It looked as if he was telling us: ‘Yeah, I’m fine.’ But he got down to the start and for the first and only time in his life he turned his head and said: ‘Dad, no. I really can’t do this again. Don’t ask me to do it.’ That was my big mistake. I still sent him out to race. He jumped the first but then he gave up. He’s that sensible.”

In contrast, Constitution Hill ran with freedom and joy as he blew away the opposition to win his first race on the Flat at Southwell. Oisin Murphy, the champion jockey, was motionless in the saddle as the horse streaked away effortlessly. The reaction from the racing public and industry was euphoric. Henderson, meanwhile, was so moved it looked as if he didn’t know whether to cry with happiness or relief.

“What happened that night was just out of this world,” he says. “Martin Cruddas, the head of Arena Racing, came to our rescue. He said: ‘What do you want?’ I said we needed a mile-and-a-half Flat race on an all-weather track because it was winter. They don’t have maiden [races] for horses over four. He said: ‘How much money do you want?’ I told him I didn’t mind racing for nothing. I just need a race. He said: ‘Oh no, we’ll make it a forty grand race.’ Of course, the problem was then all the other trainers said: ‘Ah-hah! I’ll do that.’ So many horses wanted to run they had to put two more stalls in to get it done.”

The unglamorous reality of a Friday night meeting at Southwell was turned inside out. “I think there was an 800% increase in ticket sales compared to the equivalent meeting last year,” Henderson suggests. “People just wanted to see this ridiculous horse that can’t stand up. I had no idea what was going to happen. Three weeks before we had to teach him to go through starting stalls. The first time the gates opened, it was like he said: ‘OK, now what?’ After about 10 goes he got the hang of it.”

Constitution Hill and Ryan Moore, who won the Novice Stakes at Kempton in March. Photograph: John Walton/PA

His searing run at Southwell ended all talk that he might return to the Cheltenham festival. “The nice thing was that everybody appreciated that we’d done everything we could. The consequences [of a tragic fall] would have been absolutely horrendous.”

Henderson then took Constitution Hill to Kempton for an otherwise routine midweek meeting. “There was a hell of a crowd around the parade ring,” the trainer remembers. “They cheered and applauded him, which was terrific, but it was a bit embarrassing because the other eight runners all went ballistic. He just looked around like: ‘What’s the fuss?’”

The race was much more tactical but, ridden by the great Ryan Moore, Constitution Hill won again. “The fact that Ryan came down to ride him at Kempton, when you have his life and schedule [as a lauded jockey on the Flat], is pretty remarkable.”

If Constitution wins again, what are the feasible options for his new career? “He’s been in hard training for seven months and needs a break. It’s going to be a shorter break because he wants to be back for his autumn Flat campaign. Ryan likes the idea of the [Prix du] Cadran [a prestigious Group One race run at Longchamp during the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe weekend in early October]. As National Hunt people, Michael and I are very happy to go to France for a nice lunch.

“I have the German, Irish and American programme [of races] as they have all written to me. The [Irish] St Leger’s been definitely mentioned and, unsurprisingly, Melbourne have been on. The world wants this horse and it’s fantastic. I’ve got the Constitution file and it’s a fat one with letters from programmes round the world.”

Henderson stresses that the Melbourne Cup is “the least likely of the lot for several reasons. The ground is one. They promised me they’ll water it but you don’t do that for one horse, not in a race like that. His international season is slightly more complicated because, despite being the most sensible horse, he will not travel on his own. Even when we went to Southwell and Kempton we had to take other horses with him for company. It’s his foible. But there are plenty of races for us in France, Ireland and England. We just want to keep enjoying it like he is.”

The trainer takes a sip of chilled white wine and grins at this latest adventure for himself and Constitution Hill. “You’ve got to have fun,” he says, “and with this horse it feels like it’s our job to bring some real joy back to racing.”