NICKY HENDERSON is throwing Iberico Lord into the Champion Hurdle – after his Constitution Hill heartbreak.
The legendary Seven Barrows trainer confirmed earlier this week his unbeaten monster will miss Cheltenham Festival.
Willie Mullins’ State Man was immediately made the odds-on fav for the feature race on day one.
But Henderson, 73, isn’t giving up hope entirely of landing the Grade 1 contest.
And he will launch the ‘very progressive’ JP McManus-owned horse into the mix on Tuesday.
Henderson confirmed in a statement: “We have decided to supplement Iberico Lord this morning for the Unibet Champion Hurdle.
“He is obviously a very progressive young hurdler that keeps improving having won both the Greatwood and the Betfair handicaps.
“He loves soft ground which it seems that it might well be on Tuesday and therefore possibly not so soft on Friday when he was originally intended to run in the County.
“Obviously with the unfortunate defection of Constitution Hill, the race has a different complexion and so he is due to join Luccia in the line-up.”
McManus made headlines earlier today after buying huge Ultima favourite Meetingofthewaters.
The legendary punter and billionaire fancies a crack at the Champion Hurdle too – a race he famously won three times with Istabraq.
More to follow.
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