IT was after Jingko Blue pulled up at Cheltenham last year that a dejected Nico do Boinville trudged back towards the weighing room.
And what made it worse? I was waiting for him.
ITV had entrusted me with collating comments from beaten riders in the Grade 1 Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle.
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It’s a section viewers enjoy. But for De Boinville there was nothing to relish at all.
Jingko Blue’s flop came on the back of an already torrid week for his trainer Nicky Henderson, who had withdrawn most of his big players from the meeting. In horse racing terms it was a disaster.
“I feel bad asking but…” I said to De Boinville.
To which he replied: “You should feel bad asking. Same story, different day”.
The jockey meant it in the nicest possible way. And his answer perfectly summed up his stable’s nightmare.
“At that point of the Festival I was pretty down in the dumps and miserable,” De Boinville recalls.
“The writing was on the wall from the first race – the Supreme – I would say. I was on Jeriko du Reponet and he pulled up. It had all started to go wrong before that, though, as Constitution Hill’s bad gallop at Kempton came prior to the meeting. He was already out. Things just weren’t flowing.”
Constitution Hill is, of course, jump racing’s superstar.
When he romped clear in the 2022 Supreme he looked like a horse from another planet. He did the same in the 2023 Champion Hurdle.
Then he was forced to miss Cheltenham last year. Some started to question his brilliance.
Some mocked those who think he might just be the best hurdler of all time.
On Tuesday he has the chance to remind us of a unique talent.
“It certainly grated with me through the week,” De Boinville continues.
“But you learn very quickly in this game that it’s all very transient (not a word all jockeys would come out with!), and that you will bounce back. You can only control the controllables. You just have to move on. It also makes you appreciate when you do have winners.”
It wasn’t just a personal frustration De Boinville felt.
More than any other major stable jockey in the UK, the man who has enjoyed huge successes on jumps heroes like Sprinter Sacre, Altior, Shishkin and Constitution Hill, as well as a Gold Cup victory on Coneygree, is an ‘all in’ dedicated rider attached to Henderson’s Seven Barrows stable.
“A bad week doesn’t just affect me, it affects the whole yard,” says de Boinville.
“That includes pool money which goes to the lads when we do well and of course our owners. It was a tough week, but then you try and salvage things and I think we did that at the end of last season when we went to Aintree and got things together again.”
A year on, and there is an almighty spring in De Boinville and Henderson’s step.
Indeed, it will be a major shock this week if I’m not talking to the man I know as Nicolai Chastel de Boinville after more than one big-race success.
“From what I’ve seen the horses have been running well on the track this season,” says De Boinville.
“They seem in good order, look great in their coats and I think we are where we want to be right now.”
On paper De Boinville has a harem of top class Grade 1 mounts.
Constitution Hill heads the cast in Tuesday’s Unibet Champion Hurdle, while he also has hotpot Jonbon in the Queen Mother Champion Chase.
Then there is the potential of Lulamba in the JCB Triumph Hurdle, Jango Baie in the My Pension Expert Arkle, supplemented Joyeuse in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle and Lucky Place in the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle.
That’s not to mention a host of handicap possibles including the aforementioned Jeriko du Reponet and Mister Coffey in the Glenfarclas Cross Country Handicap Chase.
Following all sorts of issues, Constitution Hill is back after victories at Kempton and Cheltenham this term. Some think he might be better than ever.
De Boinville says: “It’s another year so you would hope he will be stronger. He’s in his prime and we are coming into this race with our eyes open and looking forward to it.
“It certainly all felt there when he won at Cheltenham last time and in his work we’ve been happy with him.
“He made a mistake at the last in the International Hurdle but that can happen in any race. I just put it to the back of my head.
“It doesn’t matter what happens in the race. He’s so straightforward. I imagine there is going to be a really strong pace – but as I have said it doesn’t matter. They can go slow or they can go quick he’s able to travel at whatever gallop.
“He’s exciting to ride and I have never jumped a hurdle better than I have done on Constitution Hill. He’s the best hurdler I have ever been on and if he comes up with the form he was in when taking the Supreme or when he won the Champion in 2023 it would take a true champion to beat him.”
Jonbon was the horse Constitution Hill stuffed in his Supreme romp, but he’s improved over fences and won 17 of his 20 races including this season’s Tingle Creek and Clarence House. Both are Grade 1s.
His three defeats, however, have come at Cheltenham.
“Jonbon is very like Constitution Hill in that he’s a very easy horse to ride,” De Boinville says.
“You can do what you like on him. I think that was proven at Aintree last year over two and a half miles where she showed he stays well. But he’s got the speed to travel well at two miles.
He’s so consistent and I’ve always thought if you are going to be consistent you can’t be winning races by long distances which he never does.
“It’s great that the field has a bit of strength in depth and Solness with be a good target to aim at although it really doesn’t matter as I can lead. It wouldn’t bother me if they dropped Solness in, which they won’t, but it makes no difference. I have no worries about him at Cheltenham.”
Henderson is set to run two exciting horses in the Grade 1 JCB Triumph, namely Lulamba and Palladium, who cost nearly £1.2million!
De Boinville said: “Lulamba felt good at Ascot. I’m very happy with him. I loved how he went to the last hurdle and pricked his ears and then scooted on clear. From what I had seen at home his Ascot win wasn’t any surprise at all. I thought he was a good horse and he is.
“I might not be on him but I certainly wouldn’t dismiss Palladium. He won at Huntingdon and the form was franked the other day by a horse he beat. I thought it was a good start. He’s schooled a lot and was bought to come and run in this race so fingers crossed he goes well.”
Lucky Place is improving all the time with wins at Ascot and Cheltenham.
“He’s a terrier of a horse and everyone at home loves him,” De Boinville says.
“This is his first time at three miles and we decided after he won at Cheltenham last time that we didn’t need to be trying him over the trip beforehand.
“He was all set to go novice chasing this year, and he has the size and scope to do that. But when he won at Ascot we changed the plans. He’s a loveable horse and I’m confident on his stamina.”
It’s a week to right the wrongs of 2024. And there is no doubt De Boinville has the ammunition to do just that.
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