Second in the all time festival trainers’ list and currently being forced to watch the increasingly small speck that is Willie Mullins disappearing over the horizon, Nicky Henderson saw his week start extremely badly and go rapidly downhill. Forced to pull Constitution Hill, the defending champion, out of the Champion Hurdle after the horse picked up a chest infection, the malaise that has befallen Henderson’s stable star seems to have swept through his yard like mumps through a kindergarten. On Tuesday, five of his six runners were pulled up and the trainer subsequently withdrew several entries for later in the week, including the high-profile runners Jonbon and Shishkin from the Champion Chase and Gold Cup respectively.
“There shouldn’t be any more withdrawals and the ones who have been declared for Friday are intended to run as they’ve all checked out OK,” said Henderson on Wednesday. “It’s pretty shitty all together but everyone has been very kind and I appreciate it. I’d like to think Sir Gino is our best remaining chance and everything we run should have a chance, but you just can’t guarantee at what level they are going to run.”
