9 months ago
64
CHELTENHAM Festival banker Constitution Hill is a MASSIVE drifter in the Champion Hurdle market after a shocking gallop at Kempton.
Several firms have suspended their market on the unbeaten superstar, who was a general 1-4 favourite.
A concerned Henderson, left, De Boinville, centre, and owner Buckley, right, hold crunch talks after the gallop
PAThe top-class seven-year-old was eased right down by Nico de Boinville when trailing behind two stablemates in a gallop on the all-weather.
On-looking Nicky Henderson, Michael Buckley and Barry Geraghty looked visibly shocked as he laboured past the post.
De Boinville jumped straight off the horse’s back shortly after the two-mile gallop with Triumph Hurdle fav Sir Gino and Quick Draw.
The horse was scoped by a vet in the racecourse stables and Hendo revealed there was ‘significant mucus’ in the horse’s airway.
Hendo said: “We had him scoped and there was some significant mucus.
“He seems fine in himself, he stopped like a horse who’d bled but he didn’t, thankfully.
“Nico said he couldn’t keep tabs on them. We will send off the sample to our vets this afternoon and wait for the results.
“There is no point saying that’s it, it’s all over. We are going to try and get him there.
“We had this issue in January with him and it looks like it has come back to haunt us.
“He was very disappointing.
“We’re taking a sample of it to a laboratory to analyse it, which will tell us about the significance of it and we should know more after that.”
Constitution Hill is the banker of the Festival for most punters.
Some £219,000 has been matched on him on the Betfair Exchange and he was by far the most-backed horse for the whole four days.
He had been 1.37 on the Exchange but is now out to 2.8 with Willie Mullins’ State Man the new favourite on 1.8.
Bookies are yet to reopen their Champion Hurdle markets but State Man will likely be the new favourite once they do.
Constitution Hill missed his intended run at Cheltenham’s Trials Day last month after a bad scope.
The public have seen the horse just once this season, when he won the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day.
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