Now we’ll get to see what they’re really made of

Top novices Constitution Hill and Galopin Des Champs still have to prove their greatness, says Ruby Walsh

IT FEELS a bit like being in the back of a Jeep on safari with David Attenborough. So many beasts to ask about, so many territorial battles ahead and so much ground to cover with an iconic voice.

And Ruby Walsh has made a seamless shift from saddle to

Attenborough’s kingdom of the small screen. He speaks a dialect we all understand and, as long as the most successful rider in

Cheltenham Festival history is on our screens, racing will always have somebody who speaks the truth and will never buy shares in fabrication.

Walsh is typically forthright with his views on Constitution Hill. Autumn, as ever, is all about anticipation and the record-breaking Supreme Novices’ winner, who smashed the clock in last year’s festival opener, is the horse we are drooling over the most.

It is put to Walsh that he is not just a very good horse but already a great one, with the potential to become one of the best of all time.

“It was a great performance,” he says of the 22-length Supreme romp. “Jesus, it was, and he’s a hell of a horse. If you rode him, owned him or trained him you’d be so seriously excited about the season ahead for him.”

I feel a big ‘but’ coming.

“But . . .”

There it is.

“But, I suppose I’m trying to be level-headed and there is that little bit of fear that he still has to go out and do it in open company. Just because the handicapper puts him on 170 doesn’t mean he is definitely that good.

“You have to look at every race individually

and how it sets up and works out. There is absolutely no doubt Jonbon and Dysart Dynamo went at it and Constitution Hill had the perfect sit in the Supreme. Like Footpad had the perfect position in the Arkle when he beat Petit Mouchoir and Saint Calvados. They went off like the clappers and we beat them a country mile. It was a similar story in the Supreme.

“Could I have seen Constitution Hill winning the Supreme? Of course I could. Could I have seen him doing what he did? Of course I couldn’t. But will he ever repeat that? I don’t know whether he will or not. Like Master Minded won the Champion Chase by a distance one year. He went back the following year and won it again but he didn’t win it by half as far or even half as easily.

“If the opposition capitulates and all you have to do is keep going, you can look spectacular. It will be very interesting to see what he’s made of when he steps out into open company.”

The jumps season building to a crescendo at Cheltenham in March is something that irritates the hell out of a lot of you. It is, according to plenty, the single biggest problem with winter racing, but Walsh is not singing from that hymn sheet. He is humming a slightly different tune.

“Isn’t that what makes racing great?” he says. “Constitution Hill going into open company and clashing with Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle in March? They won’t clash before that. If he can keep going and she keeps winning and they both keep sound, that clash at

Cheltenham is what people need. It’s what racing needs.

“You hear people saying we need competitive racing all the time. Of course that would be wonderful but, to me, you also have to have horses coming different paths who are going to clash somewhere. The anticipation of the clash creates the interest.”

Constitution Hill v Honeysuckle is sure to be a huge box-office hit but just how big will it be in a historical sense?

“It’ll be a great clash, but it will be no bigger than some of the great clashes in the past,” Walsh replies. “But because it’s in the present it will be the next big thing and the greatest clash of all time! It’s no bigger than Arkle v Mill House. But, just because it’s in the present it’s going to be the biggest thing ever.

“It will be brilliant, though. And the reason it will be brilliant is because it’s in open company. It’s not just two novices clashing. It’s the pretender against the champion and that’s what makes every sport so good.”

He continues: “Likewise in the staying chase division. A Plus Tard goes to Haydock again and wins the Betfair Chase. Galopin Des Champs goes to Leopardstown and wins. L’Homme Presse and Ahoy Senor stay apart in England and win a couple of races. If Galopin Des Champs and A Plus Tard stay apart and win their races you could have one hell of a f***ing Gold Cup too.

“Having strength in depth in the divisions, and having the ability to divide them up in different races, is important. It just doesn’t suit everybody today because a gambler wants to

have a bet in the

next race and make money today, and doesn’t want to take a long-term view. You want the big clash and the big race now because you want to get a nice price about a good horse now, but it’s the building of a season and having the opportunity for horses to win races until the big clash is what makes every sport. That anticipation is vital.”

Back to Honeysuckle for a second. She has her knockers. The Racing Post’s very own Paul Kealy is not particularly fond of her and reckons she won a Champion Hurdle in March that “wasn’t any good and the time was rubbish”. She is winning but, of late, winning ugly, especially the most recent of her 16-race unbeaten sequence in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle.

“Ah, I’m a massive fan,” says Walsh. “She does what the really great horses do. A great horse, first and foremost, is a sound horse, and she’s sound. It’s about longevity and being sound enough to go at it year after year. I rode loads of great novices but they didn’t have the constitution to become great horses. They didn’t race often enough for long enough.

“I’ve watched Honeysuckle win at Leopardstown when she was 100 per cent and bolted up in an Irish Champion Hurdle. I’ve watched her back it up by travelling to Britain and winning two Champion Hurdles. But, I’ve also watched her winning when she hasn’t been at her peak. I remember her winning at Punchestown during Covid in 2021 when there were very few others there watching her live and she was having an off day. Yet she still won. You’ve got to admire that. Even when she’s not at her best she’s banging on the door. That’s what really great horses do.”

Galopin Des Champs could become a really great horse too. He is ante-post favourite for the 2023 Gold Cup ahead of the defending champion A

Plus Tard, who won the race last year by 15 lengths and, with a mark of 180, is officially rated 8lb superior to him.

That’s bonkers, isn’t it?

Walsh replies: “As an owner told me, Trevor Reilly was his name, one day I walked into the parade ring at Fairyhouse, ‘We can make it favourite but can you make it win?’ I thought it was a very simple statement but a very true one. The easiest thing in the world to do is making a horse favourite. Making it win is a different story.”

CAN Galopin Des Champs win this season’s Gold Cup? “Oh, he certainly has the potential to be the next big thing but he has to come out of novice company now and go and do it,” he says.

“He was going to beat Bob Olinger a country mile at Cheltenham but I don’t think the real Bob Olinger showed up there. He then came back and won really well at Fairyhouse but he’s going into open company now and he’s going to have to bang his head against Allaho or step up to A

Plus Tard. That’s a different proposition to the opposition he has been taking on so far.”

Galopin Des Champs is one of 12 ante-post favourites at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival trained by Willie Mullins. It is, you could argue, the strongest team with which he has ever started a season.

“There is a lot of talent there all right,” admits Walsh. “But only one horse can win each race at Cheltenham so you’re trying to spread them out and maximise the potential of the horses you have. It takes a bit of doing.

“They are a strong bunch, but you’re always looking at what your bumper horses were last season, and what your novice hurdlers and novice chases were, because one always leads on to the next. It’s all about the future and what’s next down the supply chain.

“Facile Vega – you’d have to be hoping he will be a top novice hurdler. But last year Willie didn’t have the best twomile novice hurdler. All of his looked to be a good bit behind

Constitution Hill. Then you come into the two-and-a-halfmile novice hurdle division from last year and you have Sir Gerhard. I haven’t spoken to Willie about anything, and what might or might not be going chasing, but he looks to have a lot of nice staying novice chasers.

“Then there’s the likes of Minella Cocooner and The Nice Guy. You’re hoping one of those could become the top staying novice chaser. It’s so much easier to be the best novice than it is to be the best open horse though.”

There is still a bit of the Flat season left and Irish Champions Weekend is still relatively fresh in the memory. Why did only 10,280 attend Leopardstown on the Saturday in glorious sunshine? And, why did just 6,742 attend the Curragh the following day? Why is jump racing so much more popular than the Flat in Ireland?

“It’s the longevity of the horses,” Walsh answers instantly. “If Sea The Stars had stayed in training as a fouryear-old he would have had some crowd coming to see him every time he ran. One of them is a hobby and the other isn’t.

“Jump racing is a hobby bar where you have a

Honeysuckle. We’re so lucky she is being kept in training because she has residual value as a broodmare. But, with the greatest respect to all the geldings I ever rode, when they’re finished they are not going off to stud.

“The Flat game is a business. You look at what Sea The Stars went on to do at stud. If you race on with him you are risking damaging his reputation. That’s the biggest difference. Flat horses come and go so quickly that it’s hard to gain an attachment. Whereas it is very easy for fans to get attached to jumps horses.”

And, boy, do we get attached to them.

Before you go, Ruby, any chance of a dark horse for readers to follow for the season?

“Now, David, in the world we live in these days, between social media and all the stuff online and everything else that goes with it, there is no such thing as a dark horse. Nothing is ever dark any more.

“The form is hard to weigh up at this time of the year, so I’m trying really hard to keep a lid on what I think might be the next big thing.

“For me it’s hard to weigh up maiden hurdles, beginners’ chases, anything at this time of year because the winter horses are better than the summer horses so they’re going to win the better races. You know they’re not fully wound up at this time of year so I probably won’t get excited about jumping form until you get to the Paddy Power meeting at Cheltenham.”

That is just around the corner, Ruby. The excitement is about to be uncorked.

Constitution Hill is out on his own when winning the Supreme Novices’ at Cheltenham, but will he find it so easy this season?