OISIN MURPHY will ride Constitution Hill in Milan next week as Nicky Henderson gears up for his ‘Italian Job’.
The nine-year-old will head to Italy on 25 October for a crack at the Group 2 Premio del Jockey Club, worth a touch over £400,000.
The former champion hurdler was fourth in the September Stakes on his return from a break at Kempton last month, and Hendo says he’s come on plenty for it.
He’s been ridden by Murphy, Ryan Moore and Billy Loughnane in his three Flat starts so far, and the former will get back on board for the first time since Constitution Hill’s electric debut at Southwell in February.
Now Hendo has his jockey arrangements sorted, he’s also made the most important plan of the trip – finding a good restaurant for a spot of lunch before racing.
Hendo grinned: “We know where we are going to have lunch on Sunday week, which is very important.
“John Dunlop and all that lot ran their horses there as much as possible so they could go over for a good lunch!
“It’s meant to be a beautiful city and racecourse.
“There is great interest in him everywhere he goes and we’ve got Italian press coming to the yard on Friday.
“They’re taking it seriously and so are we.
“He’s in very good form, he had a gallop on Saturday which went great and Oisin has said he’s going to ride him in Milan.
“There are a couple of horses rated 115 in the race at the moment and one on 113, but they’ve all got penalties so we don’t have a huge gap to bridge.
“It’s slotted in nicely between Ascot and the Breeders’ Cup, which hopefully means it’s escaped the notice of the big boys, and it’s worth a lot of money.
“I just need to dig out my Italian dictionary, but we’re all geared up and ready to go, it should be fun.”
Hendo is also busy readying his stars for the beginning of the jumps season.
Old favourite Jonbon will return in the Shloer Chase again, while Lulamba is being aimed at the 1965 Chase at Ascot.
Old Park Star and Act Of Innocence, two of last season’s top novice hurdles, will both go chasing this winter, though a starting point is not set in stone.
Stay tuned for Sun Racing’s full and exclusive jumps stable tour with Hendo in the coming days.
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