Cheltenham Festival legend Ruby Walsh has become a Constitution Hill convert and believes he can only lose the Unibet Champion Hurdle if he takes the wrong course.
Walsh, the all-time leading jockey at the Festival with 59 wins who has become a Racing TV pundit, admitted he still had reservations about the long odds-on Champion Hurdle favourite after last year’s meeting.
Yet now he is a fully paid up member of his fan club after seeing the Nicky Henderson superstar add to last year’s spectacular Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle triumph during this campaign.
“I definitely left Cheltenham last year thinking I’d have to see that again before I believe it,” said Walsh.
“I was fully still in the Honeysuckle camp last November, but as the winter progressed and Constitution Hill was spectacular at Newcastle in the Fighting Fifth, and was just so professional in the Christmas Hurdle, from being on the fence I am now fully converted to the Constitution Hill camp. I think he is a spectacular racehorse.”
He said two-time Champion Hurdle winner Honeysuckle was a declining force who was tackling the right race in switching to the Close Brothers’ Mares’ Hurdle, with Irish Champion Hurdle winner State Man now a stronger Irish candidate.
“State Man has improved all year, from the County to Punchestown, to the Morgiana, then to Leopardstown," he continued. "Even his homework since looks like he has improved again.
“It’s just the level that Constitution Hill is setting looks so high that I think it will be very hard. I don’t see how State Man beats him.
“The beauty of Constitution Hill is how straigtforward he is as well. There is no right way to ride Constitution Hill but there is no wrong way either. Every option is open.
"You can make the running, you can drop him in, go down the inside, go down the outside, you just don’t go the wrong course. He is a brilliant racehorse.”
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