After a spate of falls Constitution Hill is set to have his first run on the Flat in a newly created race at Southwell on February 20 and Nick Alexander is thinking of taking him on
Nick Alexander is pondering a David-versus-Goliath enterprise against Constitution Hill with recent Ayr winner Platin Moon.
Recent jumping frailties have forced Nicky Henderson, who saddled Constitution Hill to a brilliant victory in the 2023 Champion Hurdle, to rethink his options for the nine-year-old, who will make his Flat debut in a novice stakes at Southwell on February 20.
The mile-and-a-half race, to be staged on a Friday Night Live fixture, will carry a total purse of £40,000 – which could tempt Fife-based Alexander to throw Platin Moon, whose hurdles rating of 100 is 70lb beneath that of Constitution Hill, into the mix.
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“I will watch the entries just to see, and if the race looks like it’s not filling with much, we might give it a go,” said the trainer. “If there are only three or four runners, there is going to be a very big pot on offer, isn’t there?
“There would be a decent second prize on offer, so it would be a reflection of what else is in the race, rather than just Constitution Hill. “If it looked like you only had to run to 75 on the Flat to get second, then I might give it a go.
“He might run over hurdles at Musselburgh at the end of the month, but three weeks would still be enough for him to run there.”
Alexander has had just one runner on the Flat during the last five years – Wakool, who carried Platin Moon’s colours to lift Haydock Park’s Grade 2 Rendlesham Hurdle in February 2023, finished unplaced at York eight months later.
“But this chap would give it a good go if he did run on the Flat,” he added of Platin Moon, who ran third at Clairefontaine in August 2024 when trained in France by Andreas Suborics.
“He ran at Clairefontaine as a back-end three-year-old, just before we bought him, and he ran very well – he wasn’t beaten very far. It would be the right trip – spot on, I would think.”
