Constitution Hill Cheltenham decision made as Nicky Henderson releases statement

The former champion was due to take part in a key schooling session at Nicky Henderson’s stables on Wednesday but it did not go ahead

Nicky Henderson has ended weeks of conjecture by announcing a decision on Constitution Hill’s Cheltenham Festival participation. Opinion has been divided over the future direction the career of one of the most talented hurdlers of the 21st century.

The once invincible jumper had never lost over obstacles when he lined up as favourite for the 2025 Champion Hurdle. But he fell during the race starting a pattern of disappointing runs in which he has fallen in three of his last four hurdles. As he weighed his decision, Henderson ran Constitution Hill on the Flat for the first time, taking him to Southwell for a specially arranged race over 1m4f on the all-weather.

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In front of a record crowd over more than 3,000 he won by nine and a half lengths, on the Friday Night Live card shown by ITV, in the manner of a potentially smart Flat horse.

Henderson admitted the following day all that positive publicity would be ‘undone in 10 seconds’ if Constitution Hill suffered a fall, or worse, at Cheltenham. He said the Southwell win had caused him “the biggest headache of my life”, but the decision was still a ‘50-50’ call.

He declared a decision would be made by the end of the week once he had discussed all the options with owner Michael Buckley.

Key to it would be how he performed in a scheduled schooling session in Lambourn on Wednesday. However the writing was on the wall when the horse began to take an alarming drift in the Champion Hurdle betting.

He was displaced as Champion Hurdle favourite and his odds not to run shortened to 1-14. Shortly afterwards Henderson released a statement announcing Constitution Hill would not be risked at Cheltenham, marking the probable end of his jumping career, to focus on the Flat.

The statement said: “Michael Buckley and I have not surprisingly spent a lot of time soul searching and thinking over Constitution Hills future and have sadly concluded that he will not be running in the Unibet Champion Hurdle the week after next.

“Last Friday night was for us all a magical occasion and we so appreciated his popularity and the love and admiration everybody showed to Conrad , as he is fondly called here. It was a terrific night for both him, us, and I believe British Horse Racing and we are very aware of the public perception and the possible consequences of running over hurdles and feel it is not fair to ask him and Nico to do it again.

“He showed on Friday night that he has another career in front of him that could possibly take us all to new playing fields.”

It continued: “I would like to thank the thousands of Constitution Hills supporters and admirers that have shared their sentiments with us and advice on how we should proceed, and I would have to say the poll was as near 50/50 as you could get.

“This is a sad day for a lot of us, particularly the National Hunt fraternity that would have liked to have seen Constitution Hill try to regain his crown and sad for all here especially Nico who has spent so much time trying to iron out our jumping issues.

“However he leaves the jumping world sound & happy and ready for the next chapter. It has been a staggering journey so far and Michael has had to endure some dark days but of course enjoyed the enormous highs and thrills of an extraordinary horse.

“Cheltenham have kindly invited Constitution Hill to parade on Champion Hurdle day to give all his National Hunt supporters the opportunity to say goodbye.”

Constitution Hill won ten hurdle races in a row after he burst on the scene, winning the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2022 and Champion Hurdle in 2023, beating future champion State Man. He missed the 2024 edition then fell four out in the race last year after starting 1-2 favourite.