Constitution Hill’s chance of following up his impressive success in the Champion Hurdle last year appeared to be hanging by a thread on Tuesday, after Nicky Henderson’s unbeaten hurdler was found to have mucus in his lungs shortly after a lacklustre pre‑Cheltenham gallop at Kempton.
Constitution Hill was a general 1-4 favourite for the Champion Hurdle on Tuesday morning, but bookmakers immediately suspended betting on the race, the feature event on the opening day of the Festival meeting on 12 March, as news of the gallop filtered through. State Man, the second-favourite, had shortened from 3-1 to 5-2 with several firms prior to the suspension.
