Festival in need of a new crop of stars in absence of Henderson hotpot Hill

IT SAYS much for the extent to which Cheltenham dominates the National Hunt landscape that the most talked about performance prior to this year's Festival did not come in a race at all.

- Malik Ouzia

It is the morning of February 27, a fortnight out exactly from the start of the sport's biggest meeting, and leading trainer Nicky Henderson is putting a number of his Festival hopefuls through their final paces in a gallop open to the media at Kempton Park. As two of his horses stride clear up the run-in, worried eyes are trained back up the straight towards a labouring third.

Constitution Hill is not used to trailing. In eight starts under rules he has never been beaten, and only once has a rival even got within nine lengths. Something, clearly, is up.

Almost immediately, bookmakers suspend their ante-post markets, while both social media and the betting exchanges are sent into frenzy. The horse is swiftly scoped and "evidence of mucus" found in his lungs, with the ominous warning that further assessment will be needed to get to the root of the cause, the starting gun fired on a race against time to get him fit.

For the best part of a week, punters and pundits become amateur veterinarians, speculating on timeframes, interpreting blood test results and waiting on tenterhooks for further updates.