Nicky Henderson admits he's as surprised as anyone to see Constitution Hill running in Saturday's Unibet Hurdle at Cheltenham.
The brilliant eight-year-old returned from 12 months on the sidelines to beat Lossiemouth in the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day and become a red-hot favourite to regain his Champion Hurdle crown.
He was expected to head straight to the Festival but came out of the last race so well, it tempted his trainer to deviate from the original plan.
Writing in his Unibet blog, Henderson said: "This may have taken a few of you by surprise to be running here; in fact it has taken me by surprise as well, but he came out of Kempton so well, and told us he is ready to go again, so it’s great to be running in the Unibet Hurdle which will hopefully lead us on to an attempt at regaining his Unibet Champion Hurdle crown in March.
"Everything has gone well this week, and he schooled over five hurdles on Monday morning. He doesn’t need any more practice; as you’ve all seen, he’s quite good over them, but it’s something we’ve always done, and it sort of flicks a switch in him.
"He is well ahead on ratings, but as we all know, there is no such thing as a racing certainty, but he arrives here in fantastic shape and is raring to go."
Constitution Hill is 27 pounds clear of nearest rival Brentford Hope on Timeform figures for Saturday's contest and Harry Derham, trainer of the latter, is in realistic mood ahead of the contest.
"I don’t think we’ll be slaying Goliath but we will be trying our best and if we could finish second I would be thrilled to pieces,” he said.
“I think it will be a weird little race as everyone other than Constitution Hill is going to be trying to finish second.
“Brentford was fresh and well on Monday and came out of Windsor well and when there wasn’t any entries, I just thought we would have a go. Obviously we’re under no illusions but if he could finish second, we would be delighted.
"He’s been a fabulous horse for the yard, he’s 146 now and life’s tough. But if he can pick up some prize-money then brilliant."
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