Constitution Hill was a big drifter in the ante-post markets for the Fighting Fifth Hurdle and Champion Hurdle on Tuesday morning after failing to fire in a racecourse workout at Newbury.
The unbeaten seven-year-old had, trained by Nicky Henderson, been a general 6-4 to regain his crown at Cheltenham in March but was pushed out to 4-1 after playing second fiddle to Sir Gino, his stablemate, in a spin at the Berkshire track course’s annual gallops morning. Lossiemouth, brilliant winner of the Mares’ Hurdle last season, has usurped him as favourite.
Constitution Hill was also eased in the betting for the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on Saturday week. Having been a general 8-11 for that race, he is now available at a general 6-4.
Nico De Boinville shook up Constitution Hill in the closing stages of the gallop but didn’t get much of a response, whereas Sir Gino, last season’s outstanding juvenile, finished hard on the bridle.
Racecourse workouts can be a notoriously poor guide to the wellbeing of any horse, but it will have done little to encourage Constitution Hill’s bulging Fan Club that he is fully over his travails of last season, when he ran only once after a series of issues.
This spin was nowhere near as bad as Constitution Hill’s public humiliation at Kempton in February, when his subdued display was a precursor to him missing his defence of the Champion Hurdle.
However, it was alarming that he couldn’t keep up with his younger stablemate, who is to switch to chasing this season. And there was no disguising that Henderson, De Boinville and owner Michael Buckley looked subdued, at best, immediately afterwards.
Henderson told the assembled media: “He’s fine. Absolutely 100 per cent. If there was any problem, I would say straight away. Speaking to Nico just now, we’re going to school him on Friday and work on Sunday.”
De Boinville appeared on At The Races and said Constitution Hill was merely short of peak fitness, having not had a run for almost 11 months
“He felt great until the two-furlong pole where he's had a really good blow. All the ability is there, it's just getting him up to full fitness,” he said. “He had just needed it a bit to bring him on, that’s the whole reason why we have these gallops.
“This will bring him on a lot. We’ve got one more piece of work to go [before the Fighting Fifth] and he will probably have a school this week and then we're ready.”