Dan Skelton has said “bring it on” in response to Sir Gino potentially taking on his dual Grade One winner The New Lion in the Unibet Hurdle at Cheltenham. <\/p>\n
The Shelfield Green handler will aim his six-year-old, who suffered the first defeat of his career when falling on his return to action in the BetMGM Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, at the Grade Two test on January 24. <\/p>\n
It could see him lock horns with Sir Gino after his trainer Nicky Henderson hinted that the \u00a3125,000 prize would be the next port of call for the unbeaten It\u2019s Gino gelding, who made a winning return in the Grade One Ladbrokes Hurdle at Kempton Park on Boxing Day. <\/p>\n
Skelton said: \u201cThe New Lion is going to the Unibet Hurdle. Sir Gino may go straight to the Champion Hurdle, but if he comes here then bring it on.<\/p>\n
\u201cPut it this way, if Sir Gino turns up it doesn\u2019t mean we aren\u2019t. I\u2019m not backing out. <\/p>\n
\u201cI said a long time ago this is the route we are going and I\u2019m not changing. I\u2019m not going to not make that race, if they turn up they will make that race, and if they don\u2019t then they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t go to Kempton as it was just too quick. I would have loved to have gone left handed somewhere now and then go again in February, ideally left handed, but you can\u2019t so the only race you could run in properly was the Unibet Hurdle.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season The New Lion<\/a> secured the biggest success of his career to date when running out the impressive winner of the Grade One Turners Novices\u2019 Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March. And while it remains to be seen what would have happened at Newcastle had The New Lion not parted company with Harry Skelton at the second last while still holding every chance, his trainer believes the return to Cheltenham is a big positive for the JP McManus-owned horse.<\/p>\n Skelton added: \u201cI think the track will suit him better than Newcastle. At Newcastle he was running really well and I felt like he would have won, but he didn\u2019t and that is that. <\/p>\n \u201cFirst and foremost though we need a clear round, however I\u2019ve jumped him loads since and touchwood that has been alright. He seems in good health and I\u2019m looking forward to having him ready to go get back on track there.\u201d<\/p>\n Dawning bound for Cotswolds<\/p>\n Joining The New Lion at Cheltenham on Festival Trials Day will be his stablemate Grey Dawning<\/a>, who will bid to enhance his Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup credentials in the Betfair Cotswold Chase. <\/p>\n The eight-year-old, who is a general 10\/1 chance for the blue riband event on March 13, secured the second Grade One victory of his career when making a triumphant return to action in the Betfair Chase at Haydock Park. <\/p>\n Skelton said: \u201cGrey Dawning looks fantastic and I\u2019m very happy with him. He will go and run in the Cotswold Chase and then we will head to the Gold Cup all being well. Last season we got beat the first day in the Betfair Chase and I knew afterwards it was going to be hard for him to be in Gold Cup form thereafter and it was proven correct. <\/p>\n \u201cThis season has been a smoother start, and hopefully a smoother middle, and that will mean we can go to a Gold Cup with a real chance. The Gold Cup picture is not very clear, but that doesn\u2019t mean it is an ordinary renewal. It is probably not very clear, because it is probably a good renewal. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are a lot of horses that could come to the fore in March. It looks like it will be a competitive affair, but we will chuck our hat in the ring.\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":"Dan Skelton has said “bring it on” in response to Sir Gino potentially taking on his dual Grade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-221365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221365","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=221365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}