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.