TICK Tock, the hours are slowly passing on the run down to the 2026 Cheltenham Festival, but the days of National Hunt racing could well be on a slow timer.

Nicky Henderson had said it was 50-50 whether to let his former champion hurdler, the brilliant Constitution Hill, line up in the Champion Hurdle, off the back of three falls in his last four races. An impressive win on the flat in a race ‘staged’ to attract him last Friday at Southwell added another dimension.

In the end, Henderson came to the conclusion this week: “I believe British Horse Racing and we are very aware of the public perception and the possible consequences of running over hurdles and feel it is not fair to ask him and Nico to do it again.”

This is a sad day for a lot of us, particularly the National Hunt fraternity, who would have liked to have seen Constitution Hill try to regain his crown, and sad for all here, especially Nico, who has spent so much time trying to iron out our jumping issues.

His owner Michael Buckley said on the Nick Luck podcast: “We would both find it hard to deal with if something went wrong, if he made a mistake and there was an accident - even if he just fell over after all of this publicity. It would not just hurt us, but it would be very bad for jumps racing and its reputation.”

Social media

It might be the right decision - there seemed more support for it on social media - and perhaps younger racegoers are quicker to find death on the track unacceptable. But you feel it may have consequences. It’s all about the ‘if’.

But a fear that something might go wrong goes with the territory, it is an element of the risks of jump racing.

In my lifetime, Kybo, Shadow Leader, Valiramix and Our Conor were killed in the Champion Hurdle. We lost one in the Gold Cup last year, but I’d bet it would take some people a minute to remember who? I remember the relief when Kauto Star got up after his Gold Cup fall.

You cannot but see the decision as a threat to jumps racing, with the “aware of the public perception” standing out.

Brian O’Connor asked in The Irish Times: If it is too dangerous for Constitution Hill to race at Cheltenham, what does it say about jump racing? The sport has opened a can of worms for itself”, he remarked, “a sport looking dispiritingly timid about the essential challenge it presents to its equine performers”.

Career ending

There were four scenarios for Constitution Hill. One he ran, got over the eight hurdles and won, grand finale, call it a day then. Two, he ran and just got beat. Tough. Three, he ran and fell again but was unhurt again, no harm done really. Four, he ran and fell and was hurt. And face the consequences?

Given he got away with three falls, the odds on him being hurt should actually be quite big enough. To read some of the online trepidation earlier this week, you would feel he was going out to face a firing squad! The odds stacked against him. He did jump nine of the 11 hurdles at Aintree with no issues (and the last riderless!).

O’Connor concluded: “It is essentially negative, focusing on fear of what might occur and any public response to it. A reputational bat to beat the sport has been handed to its opponents.”

You can also point to the fact that one of Henderson’s best horses, Sir Gino, met with two life-threatening, and ultimately career-ending, injuries and neither from a fall in a race. Shishkin likewise.

I would have liked Constitution Hill to have a go, ridden cold, a few lengths off the main field, which would be a new approach, and asked for his effort only after the second last. We saw at Southwell how he can quicken. He could give the field 10 lengths?

What we don’t know is how he schooled at home, there were no negative reports, and what would have happened if the flat option wasn’t there, if he had been beaten at Southwell?

The words ‘public perception’ and the possible consequences are what we take forwards. There will be similar situations. Can we persevere with novice horses who make errors? Will trainers be put under pressure, for the good of the sport, not to run horses who are poor jumpers?

What if El Cairos falls at Cheltenham - is it then considered too much of a risk, with two falls and one bad mistake in his three runs? Will it be see you at Chester, Constitution Hill? Would you continue to run a horse if he has the form figures 1FF433/1UF47? (Asterion Forlonge did).

Cost his life

Of course, you can pick horses to back up any argument. One Man ran 26 times over fences, he won 17 times, he was top class but he had three bad lapses at fences, the final one cost him his life. But you couldn’t say he should not have been racing over fences.

Master Tommytucker, winner of the Grade 2 Silviniaco Conti Chase for Paul Nicholls fell in three of his first four novice chases, winning the other one. He was still campaigned over fences and ultimately met his death in a fall, 10 races after his last fall. There were no clues as to what was going to happen.

Corach Rambler was retired at 10, after unseating in the Grand National a month after he had finished third in the Gold Cup. In the older days, he’d have gone back to Aintree again and again.

One does wonder what the decision might have been if Constitution Hill had been beaten at Southwell. Personally, I think the performance on the night may not have been as good as it looked. I’d be surprised if he is a graded horse on the flat. Even so, if Southwell wasn’t a one off, would the crowds flock to see a Hamish or an Al Qareem?

It was all about an ‘if’ he fell with Constitution Hill. When we get to the stage that public opinion dictates that we can’t risk running a popular horse over obstacles in case he might fall and hurt himself, it can’t be good for the sport long term.