Having been pulled out of this Saturday’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, due to a ‘mysterious lameness’ – trainer Nicky Henderson has taken to ‘X’ to deliver a more positive injury update for Constitution Hill.
Constitution Hill On The Mend and On Target For Boxing Day Christmas Hurdle
Horse racing fans last saw the 2023 Champion Hurdler Constitution Hill winning the Christmas Hurdle last season and after a recent injury setback the good news coming out of Seven Barrows this week is that the Boxing Day Kempton race remains his comeback target.
Nicky Henderson took to X ‘Twitter’ to update the racing world about one of his stable stars Constitution Hill, after the horse was pulled out of this weekend’s Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle.
The horse was found to be lame on Friday, which came three days after a racecourse gallop at Newbury, that didn’t see him sparkle and left many wondering if there was an issue with Constitution Hill – these people were right.
Henderson will now rely on Sir Gino in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle as he hunts his ninth win in the Newcastle race – where he’ll take on the Willie Mullins-trained Mystical Power.
Constitution Hill ‘Miles, Miles Better‘, Says Henderson
However, on Monday 25th November – three days after the latest Constitution Hill injury update – Henderson was more positive – saying the horse was “miles, miles, better and that the Christmas Hurdle on 26th December at Kempton, remains his reappearance target”.
Henderson went onto say that the horse had many X-rays and that the lameness he had on Friday was ‘mysterious’ as not much came back with the results.
He added, however, there was also an MRI scan done and this revealed a small area of inflammation on his pastern (near fore), which would have made him “very sore” and was “touching the nerve”.
Constitution Hill is expected to do some gentle walking this week and get back to full work, if all goes well there, in the near future.
With the Christmas Hurdle on Thursday 26th December at Kempton is return target.
As a result of all this Constitution Hill uncertainty he’s out to 5/1 in the market for the 2025 Champion Hurdle with the best horse racing betting sites in the UK.
The news is quite positive with regards to Constitution Hill and we’re cautiously optimistic he’ll make @kemptonparkrace on Boxing Day. pic.twitter.com/tUOHNn3kxi
— Nicky Henderson (@sevenbarrows) November 25, 2024
Christmas Hurdle Date 2024
📅Date: Thursday 26th December 2024
⌚Time: 1:55pm
🏇Racecourse: Kempton
🔄Trip: 2m
💷Winning Purse: £74,035
📺 TV: ITV / Racing TV