SIRPRISE
Constitution Hill loses stablemate rival as Nicky Henderson announces Sir Gino will start over fences this season
NICKY HENDERSON on Tuesday announced the unbeaten Sir Gino would be starting over fences this season.
Sir Gino won all four of his four starts last season, including the Triumph Juvenile Hurdle at Cheltenham and the Anniversary 4-Y-O Hurdle at the Aintree festival.
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Had he continued over hurdles this season, he would have ended up taking on Constitution Hill in the Champion Champion in March most likely.
But the four-year-old, owned by the black and yellow checked silks of Joe Donnelly, who also owns Willie Mullins' Champion Hurdle winner State Man, will now be up against a whole new set of rivals.
The Seven-Barrows baron, who put out a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, said: "After much deliberation, we’ve decided to start Sir Gino over fences this season.
"Really looking forward to seeing what he can achieve over the larger obstacles. More to follow."
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Henderson later confirmed on his Unibet Blog he would be starting Sir Gino in the 2m2f beginners Chase at Kempton on November 25th.
It is the same race Altior and Shishkin both started their chasing careers in.
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Since the shake-up at Seven Barrows, Betfred have cut Sir Gino from 10-1 to 6-1 for the two-mile chasing Championship, behind Mullins' Ballyburn.
While the change of tack with Sir Gino comes as a surprise, Henderson had previously stated in a stable tour last month that he had 'resisted the temptation' to take Sir Gino over fences.
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The switch to a different discipline ticks one less rival off Constitution Hill's to-beat list, although the enormous chestnut threat that is State Man still looms.
That said, Henderson's gelding made mincemeat of his Irish rival, finishing a full nine lengths ahead of him, when they last met in the Champion Hurdle the season before last.
He is set to run in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle, on November 30, where Mullins' Mystical Power and Gordon Elliott's Brighterdaysahead are also set to line up.
And the fan-favourite is back to his best ahead of his journey up north, for which Coral Bookmakers have him as short as 4-5.
He was ruled out of due to unsatisfactory blood tests, and then things went from bad to worse when he subsequently got worse.
But he seems to have fully recovered. Earlier this season Henderson said: "Constitution Hill seems in fantastic form.
"He just seems a completely different person. If you watch him walking and trotting about in the morning, he's the same as ever. But just in a lot of other ways his whole demeanor has changed a little bit.
"Very perky, very up for it. We built him a new house and he's very happy about it.
"He can go out in the field whenever he likes and he can stay in his box whenever he likes. He seems very happy about that. He just seems really happy."
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