Constitution Hill has been ruled out of running in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival by trainer Nicky Henderson.
The 2023 Champion Hurdle winner, who had fallen in three of his previous four starts before winning on the Flat at Southwell last week, was the subject of a huge market drift before he was ruled out on Wednesday.
Speaking to Unibet, Nicky Henderson said: "Michael Buckley and I have not surprisingly spent a lot of time soul searching and thinking over Constitution Hills 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 and 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 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. I would like to thank the thousands of Constitution Hills supporters and admirers that have shared their sentiments with us and advice on how we should proceed, and I would have to say the poll was as near 50/50 as you could get.
"This is a sad day for a lot of us, particularly the National Hunt fraternity that would have liked to have seen Constitution Hill try to regain his crown and sad for all here especially Nico who has spent so much time trying to iron out our jumping issues.
"However, he leaves the jumping world sound and happy and ready for the next chapter. It has been a staggering journey so far and Michael has had to endure some dark days but of course enjoyed the enormous highs and thrills of an extraordinary horse. Cheltenham have kindly invited Constitution Hill to parade on Champion Hurdle day to give all his National Hunt supporters the opportunity to say goodbye."
Dan Skelton's The New Lion has shortened to 2/1 at the head of the market for the day one feature at the Cheltenham Festival, with Brighterdaysahead also supported into 3/1.
