14 March 2024 , 10:53
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Nicky Henderson has ruled Sir Gino out of the Cheltenham Festival days after describing the horse as “in excellent shape”.
Britain’s most successful trainer at the meeting has endured a miserable week with horse after horse taken out of their races due to their poor form.
Even though superstar Constitution Hill was ruled out in the week before the Festival began, there were enough other fancied runners for Henderson supporters to look forward to.
But the alarm bells began sounding after the previously unbeaten Jeriko Du Reponet was pulled up in the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and only one of the stable’s other Tuesday runners completed their race.
A wave of non-runners followed including Jonbon, hotly fancied for the Queen Mother Champion Chase, and Shishkin was not declared for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
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Sir Gino was expected to run until Henderson announced on Thursday that he too would come out, along with Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle runner Shanagh Bob.
Sir Gino was favourite for the Triumph when he became the subject of an alarming drift in the betting at the weekend.
The subsequent conjecture led Henderson to issue a statement alongside pictures of the horse exercising.
Sir Gino: non runner in the Triumph Hurdle (Getty Images)“Following the ridiculous rumours that there's a problem with Sir Gino, this is him this morning,” he said.
“We could not have been happier with his work yesterday and his schooling on Thursday. The horse is in excellent shape.”
However on Friday he announced he would not be risking Sir Gino with the stable under a cloud.
“Very sadly we have had to make a very tough decision which is not to run Sir Gino in the Triumph Hurdle tomorrow and the same applies to Shanagh Bob in the Albert Bartlett,” he said in a statement.
“Both horses appear to be in great shape but we cannot ignore the performances of all of our horses throughout this week and indeed last week as well and we feel it would be crazy to chance it with two very high class young horses with their lives in front of them.”
He added: “We are very much looking forward to hopefully Aintree and Punchestown as soon as we get the team back to normal.”