Sir Gino And The Brand-new Lion Set For Cheltenham Clash

Sir Gino and The New Lion are due to cross paths 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 success ahead of Jeremy Scott's star mare Golden Ace.


The New Lion, trained by Dan Skelton, shone at the Cheltenham Festival last year when winning the Turners' Novices Hurdle but fell at the penultimate flight when starting 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 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 campaigner who famously won last season's Triumph Hurdle on his debut over challenges and though he is because of to return to the National Hunt code before the summer, his first outing may be either at Cheltenham or Leopardstown on February 1.


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


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


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


"Sir Gino will be in it and so will JP's horse (The New Lion). There are 2 of taking a look 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 simply as hard a race, if not more difficult, and there'll likely be more runners at Leopardstown also.


"I believe if he works all right, we'll most likely be going to Cheltenham."