Sir Gino and The 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 victory 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 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 campaigner who famously won last season’s Triumph Hurdle on his debut over obstacles and though he is due to to return to the National Hunt code before the summer, his first outing may be either at Cheltenham or Leopardstown on February 1.

“Poniros is in a Cheltenham at the weekend, he’s due to work at the Curragh on Tuesday,” said Sean Graham, racing manager to Poniros’ owner Tony Bloom.

“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 two ways of looking at it, we can go to Cheltenham and run at a track he has won around before and there might only be four or five runners – or his other option 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 as well.

“I think if he works well enough, we’ll probably be going to Cheltenham.”