Nicky Henderson rules Constitution Hill out of Sky Bet Ebor
Nicky Henderson will return to the programme book after conceding there was simply not enough time to qualify Constitution Hill for the Sky Bet Ebor.
After lighting up the all-weather scene in his opening two outings on the Flat, the 2023 Champion Hurdle hero required one further run following his early-summer break to meet the entry criteria for York’s prestigious £500,000 handicap on August 22.
The Seven Barrows handler had suggested last week that timing that required run could prove tricky and although initially entering Constitution Hill for the Ebor on Tuesday, his name was missing from the final listings after the 12pm deadline.
Henderson told the PA: “He’s 100 per cent fine and we did put him in but then I just wanted to talk to Michael (Buckley, owner) as we were always unsure we would do that as we never really had the time to get the third run into him.
“He would be ready for the Ebor but he would not be ready to have a race before the Ebor that he needed. It was always going to be touch and go, but he’s in good shape.”
With the Ebor now out of the equation, Constitution Hill’s only current entry is in the Comer Group International Irish St Leger at the Curragh on September 13.
However, nothing has been pencilled in definitively at this stage as Henderson continues to consider all possible options for the nine-year-old’s highly-anticipated next outing.
“He’s still going to be ready to run around about then and if he was eligible to run in the Ebor (August 22) he would run in the Ebor,” continued Henderson.
“But we had to take a break and there was no point him having a quick nap, he needed some proper time out which any horse does. He only had a month, but there was no point just having a week off and calling that his holiday.
“There are quite a lot of options and it’s just a case of where we pitch ourselves when we consider the ground and weather and everything else.”
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