Sir Gino And The Brand-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 winning the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton on Boxing Day, a six-length triumph 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 but 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 marketplace, with the final field set to be little 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 notoriously won last season's Triumph Hurdle on his debut over and though he is because of to go back to the National Hunt code before the summertime, his first outing might be either at Cheltenham or Leopardstown on February 1.


"Poniros remains in a Cheltenham at the weekend, he is because of operate at the Curragh on Tuesday," said Sean Graham, racing manager to Poniros' owner Tony Bloom.


The New Lion (left) and Sir Gino, who are because of 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 regarding whether we're going to go.


"Sir Gino will be in it and so will JP's horse (The New Lion). There are 2 ways of taking a look at it, we can go to Cheltenham and run at a track he has actually won around before and there might only be four or 5 runners - or his other option is the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.


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


"I believe if he works well enough, we'll probably be going to Cheltenham."