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Constitution Hill and Nico de Boinville at Aintree before their fall. The jockey was also on the deck at Plumpton on Easter Monday - Mike Egerton/PA
Nico de Boinville, who is due to ride Constitution Hill at Punchestown in 10 days’ time, was taken to hospital in Brighton for scans on a possible back injury after taking a fall at the first in the novice handicap hurdle at Plumpton on Easter Monday.
The jockey was riding As The Fella Says for trainer Nicky Henderson when the gelding gave him a heavy, tumbling fall at the first flight. The hurdle, the first in the home straight, was subsequently bypassed on the next two circuits while De Boinville was attended to by medics.
It seems misfortune has not been far away from Constitution Hill in recent times, having fallen on his last two starts – in the Champion Hurdle and Aintree Hurdle – but he still single-handedly attracted huge crowds to his stable at Lambourn’s Good Friday open day.
His next start is due to be in the Punchestown Boodles Champion Hurdle on Friday, May 2 where he would be expected to meet State Man and Golden Ace to make up a triumvirate of Champion Hurdle winners contesting the race. The eight-year-old is unbeaten under rules when he has stood up and though he finished second on his only start in a point-to-point in Ireland, it would be his first visit ‘home’ since joining Henderson.
However, Henderson told Nick Luck’s podcast on Monday that Constitution Hill has to come through a work out first. “It’s very simple,” he said. “If he’s 100 per cent he’ll go, but if he’s 98 per cent he won’t. That gallop is going to be crucial and everything hinges on that.”
The Plumpton race was won by the Dan Skelton-trained 14-1 shot Mostly Sunny, which helped him, with the aid of winners at Chepstow and Fakenham, restore his lead over Willie Mullins in the nip-and-tuck trainers’ title race to £50,000 at the end of the day. Between them, the pair have 71 horses entered for Sandown, the last day of the season, on Saturday.
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Sean Bowen is all smiles after partnering Haiti Couleurs to victory in the Boylesports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse - Damien Eagers/PA
Meanwhile, Haiti Couleurs, one of only two British runners in a field of 30, won the Boylesports Irish Grand National for the Welsh combination of trainer Rebecca Curtis and jockey Sean Bowen at Fairyhouse.
The eight-year-old, who won the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham in March, was sent off the 13-2 second favourite and was never out of the first two before coming home 3¼l clear of the heroic 13-year-old Any Second Now, who was finishing second in a fourth National. The Mullins-trained Quai De Bourbon, the 11-2 favourite, was a further 6½l back in third.
Haiti Couleurs was the first British-trained winner of the race since the Jonjo O’Neill-trained Shutthefrontdoor in 2014.
Curtis, who has trained some good horses on the shores of the Irish Sea but has lacked a star in recent years, described it as “absolutely amazing” after watching The Brizzle Boys-owned gelding outstay all his rivals.
“I was a bit worried about the ground,” she said on ITV Racing “But he’s done it well and kept going. Sean gave him a beautiful ride and I knew, coming to the last, he’d stay. I’m so pleased for his owners, they’ve been massive supporters of the yard.”
Bowen, who will be crowned British champion jump jockey for the first time at Sandown on Saturday, was also in a state of disbelief. “No words would describe it,” he told ITV Racing. “I couldn’t ride him at Cheltenham and the owners were very good to let me back on him. It felt like he was only doing a half-speed being left alone up front and I couldn’t believe how easily he was going turning in, so much so I half thought there must be another circuit to go!”
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Sealed with a kiss: Bowen gets a smacker from trainer Rebecca Curtis after Haiti Couleurs’ victory - Damien Eagers/PA
If Bowen’s season of 172 domestic winners has lacked one thing it has been a big prize. “When I was champion jockey it would top everything but you want those big winners – it’s unbelievable.”
After the 13-year-old Celebre D’Allen died a couple of days after the Grand National leading to a discussion about age limits on horses in the race, runner-up Any Second Now put forward a sterling argument for equine OAPs. The Ted Walsh-trained veteran will now be retired.
“He was second [to Noble Yeats] and third [to Minella Times] in the Grand Nationals at Aintree and second in two Irish Nationals,” Walsh said. “He was well named. But other than winning, it couldn’t have been a better result. He ran his heart out and you don’t mind getting beat if you have no excuses.”
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