Cheltenham Festival’s major development as legendary trainer Nicky Henderson confirms his huge decision on fan favourite Constitution Hill

Constitution Hill will never jump a hurdle again after Nicky Henderson made the agonising decision to abandon the dream of reclaiming the Champion Hurdle.

There has been a huge debate since the nine-year-old’s awesome win in a flat race at Southwell last Friday about whether Constitution Hill, the most popular horse in the British Isles, should go back to the Cheltenham Festival.

Henderson, who has won 75 races at Cheltenham during his legendary career, was adamant he would not decide until Constitution Hill, who is owned by Michael Buckley, had taken part in a schooling session alongside some stablemates at his Seven Barrows yard on Wednesday.

The workout led Henderson and Buckley to the conclusion that it wouldn’t be right to ask a horse that has fallen on three of its last four runs over obstacles to line up in such a ferociously competitive contest – the potential for a calamity was too big.

In a statement, Henderson said: ‘Michael and I have, not surprisingly, spent a lot of time soul searching and thinking over Constitution Hill’s future and have sadly concluded that he will not be running in the Unibet Champion Hurdle the week after next.

‘Last Friday night was for us all a magical occasion and we so appreciated his popularity and the love and admiration everybody showed to “Conrad” – as he is fondly called here. It was a terrific night for both him, us, and I believe British horse racing.

‘We are very aware of the public perception and the possible consequences of running over hurdles and feel it is not fair to ask him and Nico (de Boinville, jockey) to do it again. He showed on Friday night that he has another career in front of him that could possibly take us all to new playing fields.’

Constitution Hill won the first 10 races of his career but things began to go askew 12 months ago when he crashed to the ground in the Champion Hurdle; he did something similar at Aintree in April and again at Newcastle last November.

His talent, however, has never been in question and such was the manner of his performance at Southwell, it has led Buckley to dream of an ambitious tilt at the Melbourne Cup in November and a flat campaign now beckons.

‘It has been a staggering journey so far,’ said Henderson. ‘Cheltenham have kindly invited Constitution Hill to parade on Champion Hurdle day to give all his National Hunt supporters the opportunity to say goodbye. He leaves the jumping world sound and happy.’