‘Getting the adrenaline going’ will do Constitution Hill good, says De Boinville

Nico de Boinville is looking forward to “getting the adrenaline going” with Constitution Hill when he returns to Kempton Park for a racecourse gallop on Tuesday.

National Hunt racing’s pre-eminent superstar blew out in a pre-Champion Hurdle workout at the Sunbury circuit 12 months ago and ultimately missed the Cheltenham Festival and the rest of the season.

He has returned seemingly as good as ever this season, beating top-class mare Lossiemouth on his Christmas Hurdle comeback at Kempton on Boxing Day before surviving a final-flight error to saunter to success in the Unibet Hurdle on Cheltenham Trials day last month.

De Boinville is not expecting fireworks from the Nicky Henderson-trained eight-year-old at Kempton this week, but hopes the exercise will put him spot on for his return to the Cotswolds a fortnight later.

“I don’t think it’s going to necessarily be a piece of work, it’s more of an away day I’d say rather than anything blistering,” the jockey said on Racing TV’s Luck on Sunday programme.

“I think it’s just getting him on a racecourse, getting the blood up a bit and getting the adrenaline going. We’ll see what happens.

“Last year showed us what not to do, every single racecourse gallop that he has had, although to the eye might not have looked spectacular, it has shown us something and we’ve learned a lot from it.”

De Boinville will be praying last year’s “gut-wrenching” experience at Kempton is not repeated, adding: “As soon as I turned in and I went to push the button and the button was broken, it was just a case of stopping him and getting the vets in and seeing what was going on.

“That was pretty gut-wrenching and on the day you had all the press around you and cameras everywhere. You just want to get out of there.

“We’re confident we can get him where we need to be going. I think he’s in good order, he’s come through each test we’ve given him this season really well and I think he keeps pushing forward.

“We’re very happy where we are, hopefully Tuesday will bring him on again and then we should be there.”

The rider also provided an upbeat bulletin on the hugely talented Sir Gino’s recovery from a leg injury which became infected and left him in hospital.

After standing in for Constitution Hill to win the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle in November, the five-year-old was spectacular when defeating Ballyburn in the Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase at Kempton over Christmas and would have been hot favourite for the Arkle.

De Boinville said: “He’s still having the best care with the vets and they’re just making sure that he comes out the other side of the storm.

“The storm is dying down. It’s hard to take, but that is horses.”