Cheltenham Festival 2024: Can Anything Stop Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle?

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Cheltenham Festival 2024: Can Anything Stop Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle?
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There were a whole host of huge performances at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival but none more so than in the two-mile hurdling ranks.

One horse dominates the division to such an extent that according to the Cheltenham odds he’ll only need to turn up in this year’s race to win it again.

For many, Constitution Hill needed to go and do it in a championship race if he was to live up to the hype surrounding his career. 

There can be no such doubts now and there are seemingly no limits to what this horse might be able to achieve, so much so that owner Michael Buckley has already touted the appeal of winning a Gold Cup with this machine of a horse.

He’s a top-price 1/3 with betting apps after connections said they were keen to win another Champions Hurdle with him.

Constitution Hill is going to scare off the opposition once more and we are likely to see a very small field again this year.

How Good Was Constitution Hill’s 2023 Champion Hurdle Win?

It is rare to see a horse win a big race without being fully extended but it’s almost unheard of in a championship race at the Cheltenham Festival.

Constitution Hill is so far ahead of the current crop of two-milers that he was able to draw nine lengths of runner-up State Man without Nico de Boinville having to break sweat on his back.

That’s the same State Man that has won six Grade 1 races so far, he is generally regarded as the best hurdler in Ireland and is a 3/1 chance with betting sites to win this year's edition.

The only fleeting moment of concern for Constitution Hill fans came at the last when the six-year-old took off a stride too soon, which could easily have ended in disaster, but thankfully he made it to the other side.

Surprisingly, a Racing Post Rating (RPR) of 177 effectively rates the Champion hurdle performance only 1lb higher than that of his Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle performance at Newcastle in November 2022.

The reality is that there isn’t a two-mile hurdler capable of pushing Constitution Hill towards that monster rating, and that’s not his fault.