Is Constitution Hill still the top dog in the National Hunt game? That’s one of the big questions for the current season.
Nicky Henderson’s unbeaten stable star was unable to defend his Champion Hurdle crown in 2024 after an injury-plagued campaign that saw him make just one appearance on track when landing the Christmas Hurdle for the second year in a row.
The prospect of going chasing is well and truly a thing of the past as regaining the Champion Hurdle title from State Man is the key aim for the current campaign, although a gallop alongside stablemate Sir Gino at Newbury has caused a stir on social media.
The latest horse racing odds can be found on the Paddy Power website and Paddy Power app, otherwise everything you need to know about Constitution Hill’s next race is below.
Constitution Hill next race
Constitution Hill was set to make his long-awaited return to the track in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on Saturday, 30th November but that now seems unlikely after he was found to be lame.
Trainer Nicky Henderson said: “It’s horrible, but there we go. He was perfectly fine the morning after his Newbury gallop, but then he was lame and we have no idea why. We’ve gone into an investigation because there’s no obvious reason.
“He had to be moving forward today to get him to Newcastle, and I really needed to do another bit of work with him over the weekend. We’re not going to do that.
“He’s never taken a lame step in his life. He’s always been sound. He’s had problems with his lungs, but he’s never had any sort of problem before last year.
“If the race was a week later then it wouldn’t be an issue. Too many people are trying to write him off, retire him. Watching all the coverage on the TV just now looked like it was his obituary. He’s lame and he will be back – we’ll be trying to do that. Nobody is more gutted than we are.
“I appreciate people love him and want to see him, but so do we. We obviously hope it’s nothing, but we’ve had to conclude that after 24 hours it’s not as simple as we’d hoped it would be.
“Michael [Buckley, owner] is also gutted, especially having got this far. People think we make it up as we go along, but we don’t. We’re hurting more than anyone else and people are going to miss him, but from our side of the fence it’s a lot worse than that.”
All being well, Constitution Hill is likely to tackle the Christmas Hurdle before returning to Cheltenham to try and regain the Champion Hurdle.
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change
Constitution Hill 2024/25 season results
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