It is less than a month since Constitution Hill cantered to post before the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, unbeaten in 10 starts and a red-hot favourite to regain the hurdling crown, but it felt like a different age on Thursday as Nicky Henderson’s stable star crashed out of a Grade One hurdle for the second time in 23 days.
A second successive “F” at the end of Constitution Hill’s form line leaves Henderson with some thinking to do and Nico de Boinville, his rider, to ponder a ride in the Aintree Hurdle that arguably started to unravel on the turn for home. Constitution Hill went into the bend in third place, with Lossiemouth, his main market rival and the eventual winner, in fifth, but emerged moments later in a pocket as Paul Townend, Lossiemouth’s rider, took the chance to move forward and keep Constitution Hill in a pocket.
