Nicky Henderson confirms ‘very progressive’ Iberico Lord to replace Constitution Hill in Champion Hurdle

NICKY HENDERSON is throwing Iberico Lord into the Champion Hurdle – after his Constitution Hill heartbreak.

The legendary Seven Barrows trainer confirmed earlier this week his unbeaten monster will miss Cheltenham Festival.

Willie Mullins’ State Man was immediately made the odds-on fav for the feature race on day one.

But Henderson, 73, isn’t giving up hope entirely of landing the Grade 1 contest.

And he will launch the ‘very progressive’ JP McManus-owned horse into the mix on Tuesday.

Henderson confirmed in a statement: “We have decided to supplement Iberico Lord this morning for the Unibet Champion Hurdle.

“He is obviously a very progressive young hurdler that keeps improving having won both the Greatwood and the Betfair handicaps.

“He loves soft ground which it seems that it might well be on Tuesday and therefore possibly not so soft on Friday when he was originally intended to run in the County.

“Obviously with the unfortunate defection of Constitution Hill, the race has a different complexion and so he is due to join Luccia in the line-up.”

McManus made headlines earlier today after buying huge Ultima favourite Meetingofthewaters from ‘the shrewdest guy in racing’.

The legendary punter and billionaire fancies a crack at the Champion Hurdle too – a race he famously won three times with Istabraq.

A ‘very sad’ Henderson declared Constitution Hill would miss Cheltenham earlier this week.

He had been as short as 1-4 to give trainer Henderson a record-extending tenth win in the race until disaster struck on a racecourse gallop last week.

Henderson said: “Very sadly we are going to have to admit defeat in the battle to get Constitution Hill ready for the Champion Hurdle and therefore have to declare that he will not be running there this year.

“he has undoubtedly improved over the weekend and seems noticeably brighter than he was at the end of last week and I really did think he was much perkier when ridden this morning.

“Unfortunately the all-important blood test shows that although the figures have also improved they are quite a way from being satisfactory for a horse to commence serious training and to race in a week’s time.

“There are three significant markers on the blood test all of which have down since Thursday’s sample but are still raised enough to indicate that he has not fully recovered from whatever was ailing him.

“The only way to continue the improvement is not to stress him and he obviously cannot run in these Olympic Games if he’s not trained sufficiently.

“This is very sad for all of us and particularly Michael but it is in everybody’s best interests that we ensure we have a fit and healthy Constitution Hill to win back his crown next year.

“As no further bulletins will be required I would just like to say how much we have appreciated everybody’s support and messages over the last week.”

More to follow.

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