There was more than one superhorse at Cheltenham

Aficionados came to this year’s Cheltenham Festival hoping to celebrate in Champion Hurdle contestant Constitution Hill a super-horse, a horse being spoken of after only five races as a potential Arkle. We left exhilarated by the exploits of three.

Looking at Constitution Hill in a field of grazers, you would not pick him out as an obvious star. As his owner Michael Buckley told me two days after his triumph in the Champion Hurdle: ‘He wouldn’t win a trot in the indoor school.’ He just eats, sleeps and wins races. Says trainer Nicky Henderson: ‘We worry about him but he doesn’t worry about anything.’ As for the future, ‘You could jump a fence, you could go three miles… He has had six races now and barely come off the bridle.’ What we forget when these superstars come along is the responsibility that goes with being their custodian. Nicky has done it before with the likes of See You Then, Altior and Sprinter Sacre but the task is still like carrying a precious artefact across an ice rink.