Sir Gino to go chasing this season

The four-year-old is unbeaten in four starts including a 10-length defeat of Burdett Road in a Triumph Hurdle Trial at Cheltenham in January and a comprehensive Grade One victory at Aintree..

Sir Gino was among the entries for the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle on November 30, along with stablemate Constitution Hill, but a different path is now on the cards.

Henderson told Unibet: “After much discussion with Joe and Marie Donnelly (owners), Nico (de Boinville) and myself, we have come to the conclusion that Sir Gino will go chasing this season.

“Obviously we have Constitution Hill, and there is also State Man (also owned by the Donnellys) who is seriously in the equation, so the decision wasn’t a relatively hard one.

“Sir Gino has already schooled over fences and jumps very well, so I think the thing to do is go down this route and if things don’t go to plan, we can always revert back to hurdles, which we did very successfully with Buveur D’Air a few years ago.

“There’s nothing to say we can’t do that again if we have to, but for the time being I’d like to go chasing and he’s coming along very nicely.”

“The plan is to start him off at Kempton on November 25 in the two-mile-two-furlong beginners chase, which is a race we’ve used for Altior and Shishkin; it’s usually quite a ‘friendly’ race, so we think that’s where we ought to try.

“He does have an entry in the Fighting Fifth, but that is nothing more than speculative in case anything, God forbid, would mean Constitution Hill is unable to run there.”