Henderson fully aware of what is at stake with Constitution Hill
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Sat 21 Feb 2026
For all the tremendous publicity Constitution Hill generated for racing on Friday night on his Flat debut, Nicky Henderson is aware he “could undo that in 10 seconds” if the worst happened at Cheltenham.
The Seven Barrows trainer on Saturday remained undecided on whether his superstar would stay on the Flat for an intriguing career on the level, or return to hurdles at Cheltenham, having fallen in three of his last four starts over obstacles.
The scenes at the Nottinghamshire track were almost unprecedented, with a packed crowd cheering every stride Oisin Murphy’s mount took as he powered home by nine and a half lengths.
“I hope and I’d like to think it did a lot of good (for racing),” Henderson told ITV Racing.
“It was a wacky idea, I just wanted a race and it turned out to be a lot more than that. It was the most amazing night, the atmosphere was just crazy.”
Asked how much of a responsibility to the sport plays on his mind, Henderson said: “Of course it does, we know the situation we’re in and we’re very lucky to have to make decisions like this.
“It’s not easy, we have got to sit down, we’ve been sitting down for quite a long time, as you can imagine. There was no point trying to do that last night or even this morning.
“The plan is to school him again this week with Yogi Breisner, we’ve been doing loads of that and it’s been going fantastically well – Nico (de Boinville) is thrilled with him.
“It’s keeping an option open, but there is a lot of responsibility behind what we decide to do. We’ve got to bear that in mind – hopefully he’s done a lot for the racing front page there, to give it that sort of publicity, but on the other hand I could undo that in 10 seconds if it all went pear-shaped and we are well aware of that.”
He added: “I did think about it (running on the Flat) a few years ago, I must admit, but you could never have expected see what we saw last night, it was staggering.
“Let’s just see, it’s a big ask, but there we go.”
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