Constitution Hill will face a maximum of 10 rivals when he bids to crown his fantastic campaign with victory in the William Hill Aintree Hurdle on Thursday.

Nicky Henderson’s stable star has graduated to open company with honours this term – slamming top-class stablemate Epatante in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle and the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton before his brilliant display in the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival last month.

The six-year-old will be long odds-on to stretch his unbeaten record to seven on Merseyside before connections decide whether to head down the same route next season or pursue a career over fences.

Epatante won the Aintree Hurdle last season and could take on her esteemed stable companion again.

Gordon Elliott has entered Champion Hurdle third Zanahiyr, who could be joined on the trip from Ireland by stablemate Fil Dor, the Willie Mullins-trained Sharjah and Oliver McKiernan’s Meet And Greet.

Olly Murphy could saddle both Brewin’upastorm and Itchy Feet, with I Like To Move It (Nigel Twiston-Davies), Sceau Royal (Alan King) and Knappers Hill (Paul Nicholls) the other contenders.

The Aintree Hurdle is preceded by Alder Hey Aintree Bowl, which promises to be a fascinating affair.

Nicholls looks set to run Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up Bravemansgame, while Henderson has stated his intention to step Shishkin up to three miles for the first time under rules.

With a late fall in the Sky Bet Chase at Doncaster in January effectively ruling out a tilt at the Grand National, Ga Law could take in the Bowl after finishing fifth in the Ryanair Chase last time.

“You must finish in the first four over three miles to qualify for the Grand National, which was the plan off the back of the Paddy Power,” trainer Jamie Snowden explained.

“Having not qualified for the National, we ran him in the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham. He stayed on very well up the hill to finish fifth – he probably ran a career-best over an inadequate trip that day, it was a good performance.

“We are keen to go up in trip so might look at the Aintree Bowl with him.”

Gold Cup third Conflated (Elliott), Gold Cup faller Ahoy Senor (Lucinda Russell) and last year’s Gold Cup winner A Plus Tard (Henry de Bromhead) also feature.

The first of four Grade Ones on the first day of the Grand National meeting is the two-and-a-half-mile Racehorse Lotto Manifesto Novices’ Chase.

Leading hopes include Cheltenham hero Stage Star (Nicholls) and Arkle runner-up Jonbon (Henderson), while Snowden may run Datsalrightgino, who was pulled up when not enjoying the testing ground in the Magners Plate at the Festival.

He added: “He has certainly improved going up to two miles and four furlongs and I think he will stay three miles.

“I’ve put him in the Manifesto and there is the decent Grade Two Novices’ Chase at Ayr, which is also an option.”

The Jewson Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle has attracted 15 youngsters, including a couple of Cheltenham absentees in Gary Moore’s Bo Zenith and the Milton Harris-trained Scriptwriter.

Nicky Henderson expects to make a decision on whether Constitution Hill is sent over fences next season around 10 days after his run in the William Hill Aintree Hurdle.

The six-year-old sealed his superstar status with his cosy nine-length verdict in the Champion Hurdle, but a chase career has been mooted for some time, with the possibility of him aiming to emulate the great mare Dawn Run, the only horse complete the Champion Hurdle-Gold Cup double.

A post-Aintree schooling session under Nico de Boinville is planned for Constitution Hill, after which Henderson believes he will know in which direction they will be heading.

“It’s possible Aintree could be his last run over hurdles. Everything is possible,” he said.

“There are more opportunities over fences to start with, which would lead to the Arkle and the Champion Chase or maybe even the Gold Cup if he stays. A real superstar is a horse that can adapt to everything.

“It’ll all happen after Aintree. Michael (Buckley, owner) was down here the other day and we said what we would probably try to do is, about 10 days after Aintree, if the ground hasn’t dried up too quickly, we’ll school him over fences here (at Seven Barrows) and that’ll give us an idea.

“Then we have the whole summer to sit down and discuss, but if we’ve had one look at him schooling over fences Nico will know, and Michael and I will know, pretty well what are the options then.

“His hurdling and his way of crossing a hurdle is very, very effective but you can’t do that over fences.

“He’s got to learn to jump rather than hurdle. It could be that he’s got totally the wrong technique, I don’t know, but I’d be very surprised. He’s such an intelligent horse that I think he’ll soon realise, probably by actually just rubbing a fence, that he’ll say ‘oh wow, somebody’s raised the bar and now we’ll do something about it’.

“It’ll probably take him one mistake to work it out and a lot of sensible horses will work it out.

“The road has got to be smooth the whole way. Luckily this year, touch wood and we’ve still got two weeks to go, he’s not had any issues and it would be very disappointing for everyone if he couldn’t run (at Aintree).”

Usually there are only three weeks between Cheltenham and Aintree, but this year’s calendar gives an extra week.

“We have the advantage this year of the four-week gap between the two (Cheltenham and Aintree) when it’s normally three. This time last year there was a lot of talk about him running again (after Cheltenham), but in my mind there was no chance of him running again and he didn’t after the Supreme,” said Henderson.

“He was only a young horse and it took a lot out of him to be honest. He didn’t come out of Cheltenham at all well last year and we only had the three-week gap.

“This year’s completely different. If it had been a three-week gap he’d be going to Aintree. Touch wood, I think he looks fantastic – I don’t think he’s ever looked better in his skin. He looks in great health.”

Having made his first semblance of a mistake at the final flight in the Champion Hurdle, Henderson will do his best to ensure Constitution Hill does not do that again, while he does not envisage an extra half-mile at Aintree being a problem.

“He hasn’t started his serious work yet because we’ve had that gap. They have a very quiet first week, then he’s started cantering again and then he’ll have his first piece of work this weekend,” he said.

“Then he’ll have two more bits of work to do after that and then school, I’m sure, because the last hurdle he jumped – that sort of technique needs to be ironed out.

“You can’t iron it out completely – that’s his style and how he gets out of trouble – but luckily he’s got so much scope that he can do it.

“He was so full of horse that any other horse would have been tired at that stage and that mistake would have almost certainly tipped them over, but he had the ability to come up and then come up again in the air. It was an extraordinary thing to be able to do.

“He’s got to show that he stays two and a half miles, but don’t forget we were actually prepared to run him over two and a half first time out this year at Ascot, so I can’t be worried about doing it at Aintree this time of the year.”