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

The betting for the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival has been suspended after a disappointing gallop by the hot favourite Constitution Hill at Kempton on Tuesday morning.

The 1-4 favourite for the big race on the opening day of the meeting performed so badly the he was was eased approaching the end of the workout, eventually finishing well behind his stablemate, the Triumph Hurdle favourite Sir Gino, and an unidentified horse from the Nicky Henderson yard.

It has subsequently been reported that the horse was scoped after that poor piece of work at the track with the scope producing “significant mucus”.

“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,” said Henderson.

“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 [having to miss Cheltenham Trials day in January].

“Horses are like humans, look how many people had the awful cough around Christmas that took ages to get rid of.”

He went on: “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 was disappointing this morning working with Sir Gino, who he has worked with in the past. He would normally go easily with him, but this morning he couldn’t, so [jockey] Nico [de Boinville] 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 Cheltenham] and I’ll keep hoping. As you can imagine, it has come as a bit of a shock.”

Coral were one of the bookmakers to take down their big-race odds, with spokesperson David Stevens stating: “Having heard the reports that Constitution Hill hadn’t impressed in his work at Kempton, and seeing the market react accordingly, with him being such an important and short-priced favourite for his Cheltenhamrace, we took the easy decision to suspend the Champion Hurdle betting.”