The eyes of the racing world will be on Southwell at 7.30pm on Friday, as Constitution Hill bids to get his career back on track in the highly anticipated SBK Road To Cheltenham Novice Stakes.

A mile and a half flat race on the all-weather would have been the last place you would have expected Nicky Henderson’s superstar to turn up this time last year, at which stage he was 10 from 10 over hurdles, but three falls in his last four races have prompted connections to take a different route.

With Henderson struggling to find a suitable opportunity, the powers that be moved this race and boosted the prize-money to £40,000 to accommodate one of National Hunt racing’s biggest names – and while a random ballot left him needing others to withdraw to get a run, there was relief all round on Wednesday morning when he made the cut.

There is no suggestion this will be a penalty kick for Constitution Hill and champion jockey Oisin Murphy, however, with Willie Mullins, Dan Skelton and Paul Nicholls among those also throwing their respective hats into the ring.

The Mullins representative is Daddy Long Legs, who has been placed twice on the flat already and will be partnered by Ryan Moore.

Patrick Mullins, assistant to his father, sad: “He’s always been a horse that works with a lot of speed and he obviously had decent flat form before we got him – he’s a flat-bred.

“We actually had the ‘Up The Yard’ challenge race pencilled in for him originally, (but) we said we’d go and race for 40 grand rather than for honour and glory in that.

“It works well as he’s come back off an injury. He’s a long time off, but we’re not going over for the fresh air.

“Constitution Hill, I would imagine, will come home alone. Those top-quality jumps horses, over a mile and a half, they are very good. But we’ll make sure he has to go a bit.”

Skelton has booked Hollie Doyle for Gambino, while Cieren Fallon will get the leg up on Nardaran for Nicholls.

Fergal O’Brien is another jumps trainer keen to have a go, with Tripoli Flyer an interesting contender under Billy Loughnane.

“He did some stalls training last spring because we ummed and ahhed about running him on the flat after Punchestown,” said O’Brien.

“We never did run him on the flat – we gave him a break – so we’ve had him in the stalls a few times ourselves. It’s nice having Billy Loughnane riding, he was keen to ride him.

“I know the Willie (Mullins) horse is rated 152 over hurdles, so he’s obviously a decent horse, and obviously Constitution Hill is there. We’ve got to find a little on all of them, but he’s shown a lot of speed in the past so I’m looking forward to him running.

“Someone went back and looked at the times of his Winter Million bumper win and on the sectional times, he showed a fair bit of speed at that time so we know he can handle the all-weather and we know he’s fast. He just needs to put it all together and hopefully he’ll run well.”

Latest betting6/4 Square Necker, 7/4 Constitution Hill, 4 Daddy Long Legs, 8 Tripoli Flyer, Gambino, 25 bar.

While Constitution Hill will add a real touch of stardust to Southwell on Friday night, he is far from the first superstar to appear at the course. Here, we look at some other equine greats who have graced the Nottinghamshire track, in their case prepping for the Breeders’ Cup Classic:

Giant’s Causeway

Aidan O’Brien knew he needed to try something different if the ‘Iron Horse’ was to provide him with a first Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2000. Having finished runner-up in both the English and Irish 2000 Guineas he went on to win the St James’s Palace Stakes, the Eclipse, the Sussex Stakes, Juddmonte International and Irish Champion Stakes. As Southwell’s surface was Fibresand at the time, the closest surface that resembled American dirt, O’Brien wanted him to experience kick back for the first time and a public workout was arranged. He would go on to be beaten just a neck by Tiznow in the Classic at Churchill Down in truly a race for the ages.

Galileo

Just 12 months after coming so close, the brilliant Galileo provided O’Brien with another chance to win the Classic. Galileo won his first six races which included the English and Irish Derbys and the King George. Mick Kinane came over to put him through his paces but while he appeared to act well enough at Southwell, he could only finished sixth in the Classic, with Tiznow winning for a second time, denying Sakhee and Frankie Dettori.

Starcraft

Starcraft arrived at Luca Cumani’s Newmarket yard in 2005 following a successful career in Australia and having won the Prix du Moulin he went on to beat Dubawi in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Both of those wins were over a mile but he would be stepping back up to 10 furlong for a crack at the Classic. Cumani was on hand to witness him go through his paces in a public workout and check upon how he handled the kick back. Starcraft ultimately finished seventh in the Classic, won by Saint Liam.

Toast Of New York

It was not hard to get behind the Toast Of New York story given he was trained by a former jump jockey in Jamie Osborne and it soon became apparent he had a top-class horse on his hands. Two wins at Wolverhampton by an aggregate of 28 lengths teed up a trip to Meydan where he won the 2014 UAE Derby and then went on to contest the Belmont Derby on turf. Osborne then kept his powder dry with the Classic in mind, prior to that he sent his big hope to Southwell in October for a spin and it so nearly paid off. ‘Toast’, as he was affectionately called, was beaten by the narrowest of margins in the Classic by Bayern, and remains the closest any UK-based trainer has come to winning the race on dirt.

City Of Troy

After over 20 years O’Brien returned to Southwell with one of the most talked about horses of a generation. The champion juvenile flopped in the Guineas but bounced back to win the Derby, the Eclipse and Juddmonte International. By a Triple Crown winner in Justify, hopes were high City Of Troy would have no trouble with the surface at Del Mar, but to be sure O’Brien took him to Southwell. However, in his years away the track had been relaid and the Tapeta surface was far removed from the old Fibresand that served Giant’s Causeway so well. Nevertheless there was a real carnival atmosphere on the day, with thousands given free admittance and the whole Ballydoyle team arrived adorned in City Of Troy merchandise to add to the occasion. Alas, it did him no good as he could only finish eighth behind Sierra Leone.