An act of Henderson's revered sorcery is about all we have left to cling to after Constitution Hill's underwhelming gallop at Newbury

In this space at the beginning of the year I lamented the then reigning champion hurdler hero's infrequent competitive appearances after he had been ruled out of another intended outing at the 11th hour.

Nicky Henderson had earmarked the Unibet Hurdle as an option for Constitution Hill after his Christmas Hurdle victory, but swerved the Cheltenham race after the seven-year-old reportedly scoped badly twice in the space of little more than a week.

Connections had already skipped the rescheduled Fighting Fifth on the basis that the ground was too heavy and the previous season opted out of the Coral Hurdle at Ascot because it was too good. Looking in from the outside, it was a pattern that left you feeling like there was a tendency to find a reason not to run him rather than the other way around.