Three horses with points to prove ahead of the Cheltenham Festival - ‘At his very best, he wins this at a canter’

The National Hunt season is geared towards one four-day meeting in March; the Cheltenham Festival. Trainers always have at least one eye on it throughout the season but once we hit the new year, it’s all systems go for Cheltenham.

We’ll get to see some of the leading candidates make their final preparations in the coming weeks so we’ve selected three horses who need to prove themselves ahead of the Festival. All three will be familiar names and some lofty reputations are on the line this season.

Constitution Hill

Nicky Henderson ’s stable star looked like one of the all-time greats a couple of seasons ago but his career has fallen apart since. Getting from A to B is a problem for the eight-year-old hurdler and he has fallen in three of his last four starts.

It doesn’t help that he was a complete no-show in his other start either, finishing fifth of six in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle, and he was 27 lengths adrift of the winner State Man He’ll be aimed at the Champion Hurdle once again but he has lots to prove now.

At his very best, he wins this at a canter but we haven’t really seen that version of Constitution Hill since the 2023 Champion Hurdle. Firstly we need to see him consistently put in a clear round of jumping but it seems unlikely that he’ll run over hurdles beforehand.

Connections are contemplating a run on the Flat next month and an impressive performance there would boost confidence significantly. That being said, there won’t be too many people willing to back him in the Champion Hurdle on the strength of an all-weather maiden.

Inothewayurthinkin

Even if Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin is a better horse in the spring, there’s no excuse for his diabolical performances so far this season. He was well beaten in his first couple of starts last season too, before showing a bit more substance in the Irish Gold Cup.

Hopefully connections follow the same route and send him to Leopardstown for the Dublin Racing Festival once again, as he now needs to prove himself ahead of Cheltenham.

It’s easy enough to forgive his performance in the John Durkan on hisseasonal debut. The trip was just shy of 2m4f, which would have been inadequate and it was his first start of the season. However, the problem is that his run in the Savills Chase was even worse. Gavin Cromwell’s gelding remains popular in the market so we’ll have to wait and see.

Fact To File

Something isn’t right with Fact To File this season and he has either regressed significantly or there’s a reason for his disappointing display in the King George. There was plenty to like about his narrow second to Gaelic Warrior in the John Durkan on his seasonal debut, though.

Battling to the line well, he was only just denied by his stablemate and it was a cracking race. However, he was probably the first big name to drop out of contention at Kempton and was beaten with a couple of fences to go.

Stamina shouldn’t be an issue, as it certainly wasn’t when he won the Brown Advisory two seasons ago. A very impressive winner of the Ryanair Chase in March, he needs to show us that he’s retained all that ability.