At 6-1 in a race where the bookies are paying three places, he could prove to be one of the best each-way bets of the week
Constitution Hill had been the automatic Champion Hurdle favourite ever since his brilliant success in the Supreme Novice Hurdle in 2022 when he was scratched from this year’s race a week ago, and the feature event on Tuesday’s card at Cheltenham inevitably feels a little sub-par without him.
The mantle of odds-on favourite has passed, equally predictably, to Willie Mullins’s State Man, who suffered his only defeat when completing as the nine-length runner-up behind Constitution Hill 12 months ago.