Constitution Hill’s poor gallop raises major doubts over Champion Hurdle

Constitution Hill’s chance of following up his impressive success in last year’s Champion Hurdle appeared to be hanging by a thread on Tuesday, after Nicky Henderson’s unbeaten hurdler was found to have mucus in his lungs shortly after a lacklustre pre-Cheltenham gallop at Kempton.

Constitution Hill was a general 1-4 favourite for the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday morning, but bookmakers immediately suspended betting on the race, the feature event on the opening day of the Festival meeting on 12 March, as news of the gallop filtered through. State Man, the second-favourite, had shortened from 3-1 to 5-2 with several firms prior to the suspension.

The seven-year-old was exercising with Sir Gino, the favourite for the Triumph Hurdle on 15 March, under his big-race jockey, Nico de Boinville. He was eased significantly towards the end of the gallop, finishing many lengths adrift of his four-year-old stable companion.

“Unfortunately, in a routine gallop this morning, Constitution Hill was very disappointing, and it transpires, after the vet has scoped him, that there is evidence of mucus,” Henderson said on Tuesday.

“We’re taking a sample of it to a laboratory to analyse it, which will tell us about the significance of it and we should know more after that. Last week, he worked brilliantly and he was scoped 10 days ago, but these things happen, just like it did with him earlier in the year [when Constitution Hill missed his intended Festival prep race in late January]. Horses are like humans, look how many people had the awful cough around Christmas that took ages to get rid of.”

Henderson is no stranger to dramas around Champion Hurdle favourites, as Binocular, the winner of the race in 2010, had seemingly been ruled out of the race with a muscle problem a month earlier. The same horse was ruled out of a title defence just two days before the race the following season, as a steroid being used to treat an allergic reaction had failed to clear his system.

Henderson added: “The vets still think it could clear up in a week and all his serious work has been done already, whether he makes it [to Cheltenham] will depend on the severity of it. He would normally go easily with him [Sir Gino], but this morning he couldn’t, so Nico realised all was not well and wasn’t hard on him. Obviously, the mucus was affecting him. He’s not coughing, he’s just got a dirty picture, as we say. I’m not saying definitely either way [about the Champion Hurdle] and I’ll keep hoping. As you can imagine, it has come as a bit of a shock.”

Leon Blackman from Oddschecker, the site which compiles the betting for races from all the leading bookmakers, reported on Tuesday lunchtime that State Man has now emerged as the new favourite to win the race. “Constitution Hill has drifted from 1-4 to 6-4, whereas, State Man’s odds have been cut from 5-2 to 1-2,” said Blackman.