12 March 2024 , 14:20
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Nicky Henderson endured a woeful start to the Cheltenham Festival to raise more concerns about the health of his stable.
Britain’s most successful trainer at the meeting had to rule out superstar hurdler Constitution Hill ahead of the meeting due to a lung infection.
And he was prompted to release a statement on the eve of the meeting about Triumph Hurdle favourite Sir Gino after he took an alarming drift in the betting.
On Sunday alongside a video of Sir Gino exercising, he issued a statement on his X account. “Following the ridiculous rumours that there’s a problem with Sir Gino, this is him this morning,” he wrote.
“We could not have been happier with his work yesterday and his schooling on Thursday. The horse is in excellent shape.”
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Another way of putting the rumours to bed would have been a strong showing by Jeriko Du Reponet in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
The unbeaten J P McManus-owned horse was described by Henderson as “the forgotten horse”, by his trainer in his Unibet blog.
But Jeriko Du Reponet was struggling from early on in the 2m race and was pulled up before the last hurdle.
ITV Racing pundit Sir A P McCoy remarked: “Jeroko Du Reponet was beaten after two hurdles. That will be a big worry for Nicky Henderson.”
Jockey Nico de Boinville reported afterwards, “The ground was really hard work.”
The day hardly got better for Henderson as four other runners suffered the same fate as Jeriko Du Repinot with Excello, Iberico Lord, Marie's Rock and Theatre Man failing to finish their races.
Iberico Lord had been supplemented for the race and De Boinville said: "I don't know what to say."
Only unfancied Luccia bucked the trend by finishing a creditable third in the Champion Hurdle at odds of 33-1.
Henderson was quizzed by the stewards over the runnings of Jeriko Du Reponet and Iberico Lord but told them he had no explanation.
He said later: “Everything you do at home tells you they’re all perfectly right, otherwise to be honest with you they wouldn’t be here.
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“We’ll just have to play it quietly and take them as individuals. (The tests) say they’re all OK, but this ground has gone against quite a few of them, so we’ll have to regroup. I can think of two or three that won’t want to be running on that ground, but I need to talk to the owners first.”