Sir Gino is 7\/4 favourite for the Unibet Champion Hurdle after making a winning return to action at Kempton on Boxing Day.<\/p>\n
Nico de Boinvillle punched the air in delight as the 4\/7 market leader crossed the line in the Ladbrokes Christmas Hurdle<\/a> at Kempton.<\/p>\n Almost a year to the day since he was last seen when winning a novice chase on day two of this festive meeting and after fighting off a serious infection, he showed the engine is still there with a powerful display.<\/p>\n He was keen under De Boinville and made a mistake down the back straight but was in front turning in.<\/p>\n Any worries that those exertions make take a toll were quickly dispelled as the five-year-old galloped to the line, hitting it six lengths in front of the reigning champion hurdler Golden Ace (5\/1).<\/p>\n He has now replaced Lossiemouth at the head of the Cheltenham betting with both Sky Bet and Paddy Power.<\/p>\n Henderson said: \u201cI think the horse is happy, and we all are. It has been a tough old year and there were bits in the middle that were pretty worrying, but everybody has done just a brilliant job. He had a huge team working on him and everyone has done their little bit. <\/p>\n \u201cTo be fair we have had a very comfortable and uninterrupted preparation. There have been no re-ocurrences (of the setback) and touchwood, which I can\u2019t right here, but it shouldn\u2019t re-occur. You wouldn\u2019t normally ride him that way as he has got so much speed, but he really is a very quick horse. He doesn\u2019t do anything like that at home. He just enjoyed himself out there. <\/p>\n \u201cThat is a very good horse, he has got so much speed. It is extraordinary you have got one after another and it is like when Buveur D\u2019Air, Epatante and Binocular all came along and the bus is still rolling in which is lovely. <\/p>\n \u201cI was nervous when I saw him pull as hard as that as that wasn\u2019t in his vocabulary or our plan. You thought you would just settle him in and follow them around and have a crack maybe between the last two, but he still quickened up very well turning in. <\/p>\n \u201cHe is happy to be back and we are all mighty relieved to see him back. He is seriously good, it is frightening. We will not say we will do this now, let\u2019s see how we are tomorrow and let\u2019s see how the lie of the land is like. There are two obvious ways, the Champion Hurdle or the Champion Chase. It is a matter of which one. <\/p>\n \u201cI asked Joe (Donnelly, owner) coming out, and he said it is your problem, but it is not a problem, it is a high class problem. I really don\u2019t know. <\/p>\n \u201cIt seems a shame to throw away chases, but the Champion Hurdle picture might be unclear. We don\u2019t know what we are doing with Constitution Hill yet. We are just ticking time until something happens. It wouldn\u2019t be hard to see this horse in a Champion Hurdle. <\/p>\n \u201cI think you can afford to have a season over hurdles, but I don\u2019t really know. You can\u2019t help but say let\u2019s look at the two big pictures and see what is in them.<\/p>\n \u201cAs far as the Champion Hurdle is concerned we know from the Donnellys’ point of view that State Man isn\u2019t there. Constitution Hill is still in all the pictures, but we have got to decide what to do, but at the same time you can\u2019t think at the same time this has an outstanding chance of winning the Champion Hurdle.\u201d<\/p>\n De Boinville added: \u201cIt\u2019s been such a long, hard road for him. All credit to all the staff at Seven Barrows and everyone at Donnington Grove Vets because they pulled him back from the brink. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are so lucky to have this horse back on track. It\u2019s been 364 days since he last ran and I am just delighted for him and his owners who have been such fantastic supporters of all of us. <\/p>\n \u201cMost importantly, thanks to the Guvnor \u2013 what a magnificent job he has done.\u201d<\/p>\n Straight to Cheltenham for runner-up<\/p>\n Jeremy Scott said of the runner-up: \u201cShe has run a brilliant race considering everything was wrong for her. It was quick ground, and a fast flat track, so I thought we were a bit up against it, but I wanted to run because I probably now won\u2019t run her until Cheltenham all being well. <\/p>\n \u201cThat will give us a chance to back off her and let her fill up again and let her have a go. I\u2019m delighted with her. Sir Gino was awesome today and it was a hell of a training performance. She is not a million miles off them and when things weren\u2019t going her way I thought that made it even more impressive.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t like she was off her legs, she just hasn\u2019t got that turn off foot at the end of the race so I think to do what she has done today is brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n More from Sporting LifeSafer gambling<\/p>\n We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.<\/p>\n If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline \/ GamCare<\/a> on 0808 8020 133.<\/p>\n Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org<\/a> and gamblingtherapy.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sir Gino is 7\/4 favourite for the Unibet Champion Hurdle after making a winning return to action at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-212934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}