News breaking 13 days before the Cheltenham Festival that its headline act will not be running would, usually, lead to dismay. This time, though, a gloomy bulletin must be greeted with relief.
Nicky Henderson had spent almost every minute since last Friday agonising about what to do with Constitution Hill. On Tuesday lunchtime, as he nursed half a pint of Guinness at Kempton Park after watching some of his Festival hopefuls gallop, he outlined the scale of the decision.
‘This guy is now causing the biggest headache of my life!’ Henderson admitted. ‘It’s absolutely not straightforward. It really has been unbelievable what (interest) a horse can create… if that’s what racing can do then we are very lucky.’
The outpouring of emotion for Constitution Hill had shocked his trainer. Southwell is a provincial course, a place where attendance is usually one man and his dog, but last Friday 4,000 went through the gates and hundreds of thousands watched on TV – they were treated to something magical.
Henderson’s career is a timeless masterpiece and a list of the outstanding horses he has trained could fill this screen. Constitution Hill, though, is different: he’s the type that comes along once in a generation, a gasp inducer powered by a jet engine.
But he was running on the flat last week because his jumping had come asunder: three horrible falls, at Cheltenham, Aintree and Newcastle, in four races made you think an animal that once looked like he could soar across the Grand Canyon would now tumble on a twig.
The decision to withdraw Constitution Hill from Cheltenham is the right one (pictured with trainer Nicky Henderson)
The risk of the nation’s move beloved horse falling is too great after three tumbles last week
So this was Henderson and owner Michael Buckley’s greatest dilemma. At his best Constitution Hill would have crossed the finishing line in this year’s Champion Hurdle before his rivals had started to descend Cheltenham’s famous hill.
All he had to do was cross eight obstacles on March 10 and he reclaim the title he won in 2023. We all knew it. There were, however, giant ‘ifs’ – what if he had another fall? What if, God forbid, he failed to get up if tumbled once more?
Aside from the Festival being ruined, National Hunt racing’s reputation would suffer irreversible damage and opprobrium would have rained down on Henderson and Buckley for what could be perceived as gambling with Constitution Hill’s life.
‘It was a day I was dreading,’ says Ed Chamberlin, ITV’s lead presenter, who will be writing exclusively for Daily Mail Sport during the Festival. ‘There would have been so much apprehension before each hurdle and the risk outweighed the reward.’
He’s right: watching the 2026 Champion Hurdle with Constitution Hill in the field would have been like switching on Netflix to watch Alex Honnold, the American rock climber who is famed for free solo ascents, scale one of the world’s largest buildings without ropes.
Honnold did that in Taiwan earlier this month but it was nauseous viewing, knowing one slip would be fatal. Given the affection for Constitution Hill – the most loved horse in Britain since the late Sir Henry Cecil’s Frankel was headlining 15 years ago – the potential for calamity was too much.
‘We are the curator of this extraordinary animal,’ Henderson told me in October 2023. ‘Michael’s says wherever he goes somebody says: “How’s your horse?” – he said to me: “Now listen, this isn’t my horse anymore. It’s public.” Everybody wants their piece of him and it’s great.’
With public interest in mind, then, the decision is correct. Constitution Hill’s reputation as one of the finest hurdlers we have seen is safe – and without another hurdle to cross so is he.