{"id":8426,"date":"2026-02-21T02:40:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/like-a-machine-constitution-hill-shines-on-flat-debut\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T02:40:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T21:10:04","slug":"like-a-machine-constitution-hill-shines-on-flat-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/21\/like-a-machine-constitution-hill-shines-on-flat-debut\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Like a machine&#8217; &#8211; Constitution Hill shines on Flat debut"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Published15 minutes ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Constitution Hill &#8211; one of National Hunt racing&#x27;s biggest names &#8211; returned to winning ways with a commanding switch to the Flat at the Road To Cheltenham Novice Stakes.<\/p>\n<p>Having triumphed in his first 10 races, the once-seemingly unbeatable horse had fallen three times in four outings.<\/p>\n<p>In an attempt to get back on track, trainer Nicky Henderson entered him in the mile-and-a-half Flat race at Southwell, before a possible tilt at March&#x27;s Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, which he won in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Starting 6-4 favourite and with five-time champion jockey Oisin Murphy in the saddle, the move paid off as the nine-year-old took to the front well before the line and held firm to win by nine-and-a-half lengths from Square Necker and Gambino.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He felt like a machine,&quot; Murphy told ITV afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It went to plan. It would&#x27;ve been very easy for me to blast off in front, but I wanted to get in among them and give him an idea of what a Flat race is like.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;For a big horse that&#x27;s been jumping, he has a lot of speed and he&#x27;s a joy to ride.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Henderson, meanwhile, said the emphatic display under the Nottinghamshire course&#x27;s floodlights would &quot;open up a lot of doors&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We&#x27;ve been through a few tears over the last year or so,&quot; he admitted. &quot;It&#x27;s nice to be back with positive vibes.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We&#x27;ve got lots to look forward to and lots of decisions to make. There are all sorts of options, including the Champion Hurdle.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>He was swiftly made favourite with some bookmakers for this year&#x27;s race, with The New Lion and Brighterdaysahead also well backed.<\/p>\n<p>Before Friday&#x27;s contest at Southwell, organisers had increased the prize money to \u00a340,000, but a random ballot left Constitution Hill needing others to withdraw to get a run, with his participation only confirmed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/horse-racing\">Horse Racing<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/horse-racing\/articles\/cly5kjvm477o\">\n<p>Constitution Hill falls again as Golden Ace wins<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published29 November 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More on this story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/horse-racing\/uk-ireland\/results\">\n<p>Latest horse racing results<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#x27;Like a machine&#x27; &#8211; Constitution Hill shines on Flat debutImage source, PA MediaImage caption, Constitution Hill took victory by nine-and-a-half lengthsPublished15 minutes agoConstitution Hil&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}