Sir Gino And The New Lion Set For Cheltenham Clash

Sir Gino and The New Lion are due to cross courses at Cheltenham on Saturday as both hold entries for the Unibet Hurdle.


Nicky Henderson's Sir Gino was last seen the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day, a six-length success ahead of Jeremy Scott's star mare Golden Ace.


The New Lion, trained by Dan Skelton, shone at the Cheltenham Festival in 2015 when winning the Turners' Novices Hurdle however fell at the penultimate flight when beginning his campaign in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle in late November.


Those two horses are most likely to head the market, with the final field set to be small as Kerry Lee's Nemean Lion, the Harry Derham-trained Brentford Hope and Willie Mullins' Poniros are the other entrants.


The latter horse is a dual-purpose advocate who famously won last season's Triumph Hurdle on his debut over barriers and though he is due to to go back to the National Hunt code before the summertime, his first getaway might be either at Cheltenham or Leopardstown on February 1.


"Poniros is in a Cheltenham at the weekend, he's due to operate at the Curragh on Tuesday," stated Sean Graham, racing supervisor to Poniros' owner Tony Bloom.


The New Lion (left) and Sir Gino, who are due to cross paths in the Unibet Hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday (PA)


"After that Willie and David (Casey, assistant fitness instructor) will make their minds up as to whether we're going to go.


"Sir Gino will be in it therefore will JP's horse (The New Lion). There are two ways of looking at it, we can go to Cheltenham and perform at a track he has actually won around before and there might only be 4 or 5 runners - or his other choice is the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.


"That will probably be just as hard a race, if not harder, and there'll likely be more runners at Leopardstown also.


"I think if he works all right, we'll probably be going to Cheltenham."