Consitution Hill’s Flat debut featured prominently, but there were opportunities to check in on the latest down under too.
This week’s Nick Luck Daily episodes ended with a special Saturday episode dedicated to Constitution Hill who got the job done (massive understatement) at Southwell last night.
Talk of the crack hurdler had, however, already dominated the podcast’s weekday editions for a while.
On Monday the podcast dropped as we were facing the rather extraordinary possibility that, for a race apparently put on just for him, priority rules might’ve meant Constitution Hill wasn’t able to line up at all.
Joel Pattison had strong words on the furore that situation created, which you can read here.
Jane Mangan was on hand to discuss the scenario with Luck and the pair also reviewed a busy weekend of global action on the track.
There was also a look ahead to the fast-approaching Cheltenham Festival with Emma Lavelle and Emmet Mullins, and Stuart Williams shared his reflections on the triumph of Quinault in Qatar.
Adrien Cugnasse of Jour de Galop was also on Monday’s podcast, called upon to deliver his reaction to the seemingly sudden departure of Elie Henau as managing director of France Galop.
You can read more on that here.
Matt Chapman was Luck’s main guest on Tuesday: typically boisterous and fresh from a visit to Seven Barrows, the Lambourn home of Nicky Henderson and the most talked about horse in Great Britain (this week at least).
Adam Nicol answered questions on his Triumph Hurdle contender Minella Study and Ben Pauling joined to talk Cheltenham.
Not forgetting Emma Freedman, who gave an update from the Southern Hemisphere summer, with particular focus on horses who could be flying the Aussie flag at Ascot when the British summer rolls around.
You can read Emma’s insight here.
By Wednesday, we knew that Constitution Hill had made it in, Southwell having been allocated extra stabling to increase the possible field size and provide him a better chance of making the cut.
Luck and Dave ‘Newsboy’ Yates discussed that news, along with the publication of Grand National weights, unveiled, as is traditional, at an event in the race’s host city. Bryan Dreaw and Henry de Bromhead were on for more.
Luck and Yates also examined differing opinions over the possibility of a new governance structure for British racing, with Sam Hoskins of the ROA brought on to give his take.
Sticking to the subject of British racing governance, Ralph Beckett gave his view on Thursday’s episode, when Lee Mottershead served as Luck’s sidekick.
Charismatic owner Max McNeill was on again too, and both Josh Guerriero and Rob Stephens were on hand with talk on their stable stars, Jagwar and Cabellero Cliff respectively.
Wednesday’s episode having featured the regular Hong Kong dispatch from JA ‘The Croc’ McGrath, Thursday’s saw an Emerald Isle dispatch from David Egan, who’d paid a visit to his old partner Arizona Blaze at the Irish National Stud.
Egan will be wearing the Amo silks as its retained rider again this year and Amo trainer Kevin Phillipart de Foy was also on the episode, telling Luck about the possibility of him spoiling Constitution Hill’s party with Square Necker.
Yesterday’s episode was chock-a-block with content, Jonathan Harding the main guest.
Clifford Lee discussed how he’s all guns blazing to return to race riding after a serious motorbike accident last autumn.
Martin Brassil gave an update on Cheltenham Gold Cup contender Fastorslow (and other horses in his stable) and Fergal O’Brien gave a shout out to his charge Tripoli Flyer, set to take on Constitution Hill that evening under the lights in Nottinghamshire.
Fiona Needham and Noel George discussed jumpers and, back on the Flat, Henry Dwyer told Nick about runners in the Tasmanian Oaks, and about how he’s planning to make more inroads up north in Europe this year.
Finally, as mentioned, today’s episode was a Constitution Hill special, Nick having been on the ground at Southwell for a decisive, patient and irrefutable brilliant victory. Owner Michael Buckley gave his thoughts, as did Nicky Henderson.
Also brought to listeners was Martin Cruddace, CEO of Southwell’s owners ARC, Adam Baylis from Constitution Hill’s race sponsor SBK, the aforementioned Kevin Phillipart de Foy (Square Necker was a distant runner-up), Marcus Armytage and BHA COO Richard Wayman.
Then, of course, there were the support stars of a rather unbelievable show: the racegoers, who’d turned out in their thousands to create an evening of joy.
It was a celebration of the power of horses – or in this case one particular horse – to bring people together. In short, what racing is all about.
Here’s how Luck introduced his special episode:
I had this weird dream. It’s Saturday morning, by the way, and I’m off to Kempton today.
It’s ridiculous, but [I dreamed] I drove all the way to Southwell on a Friday night (three and a half hours through rush hour traffic). Constitution Hill was running on the Flat against quite a good field in a novice race, and he’d never run on the Flat before.
Oisin Muphy was riding him, and he won by nine and a half lengths. There were 3,500 people Southwell and they were all singing and cheering as he came back into the winner’s enclosure. It was extraordinary.
Anyway, then I woke up this morning…
[last night’s commentary plays]
It actually happened.
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