Constitution Hill owner Michael Buckley admits he’s ‘heartbroken’ by the decision not to run his star hurdler in at the Cheltenham Festival with the Blue Bresil gelding retiring from a hurdling career.
The news comes after a press release from Seven Barrows on X yesterday afternoon. After what Henderson described as “having spent a lot of time soul searching and thinking,” he “sadly concluded that he will not be running in the Unibet Champion Hurdle the week after next.”
The former Champion Hurdle winner blew the field apart on flat debut at Southwell, further inducing a headache for connections.
Speaking to the Nick Luck Daily Podcast, via Sporting Life, Buckey said: “I think everything revolves around three things.
“One is, obviously, we can still remember Friday night for what Friday night was which was a fairly extraordinary thing. The second thing is that there’s been a lot of comment from people pro him running and against him running. If he did run and something went wrong, it would obviously be terrible for the public,
“I think the third thing…is that I got into racing through being a National Hunt enthusiast.
“It was through jumping that I became interested in racing and an enthusiast. I had a lot of jump horses and I’m conscious of the National Hunt fraternity and its great history and the damage that would be done to that if something went wrong.”
“Hard to deal with a situation if something went wrong” – Buckley
The reception Constitution Hill received from racegoers, particularly the younger, inexperienced punters, has clearly played a part in the decision. Sentiment has come to the fore in this case, with connections unwilling to trust their star over obstacles again.
“We’re all heartbroken,” continued Buckley. “I feel hugely sad for Nico particularly but everybody at Seven Barrows,
“We’re not people who want to run any risk of damaging National Hunt racing.”
Constitution Hill obliterated the track record in the 2022 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, and he’ll be a huge loss for National Hunt fans.
Cheltenham have kindly offered to parade Constitution Hill on Champion Hurdle day.
What’s National Hunt’s loss is the flat’s gain however, as the star will now embark on an exciting flat career. His Southwell performance was reminiscent of his Supreme, and the sport can now look forward to this new challenge.