When Sir Gino was withdrawn from his intended run in the Denman Chase at the weekend, it was explained that he was suffering from a minor injury, which would clear up soon, but would rule him out of the weekend.
Fast forward a couple of days, and we got the news that Sir Gino was out of the Cheltenham Festival with an infection around the injury he suffered, causing complications.
The statement from Nicky Henderson was a strong one, and Sir Gino had been taken to the equine hospital, such was the nature of the infection. It was a change of tone from Henderson, who’s often in the spotlight with his runners, and you could tell there was a genuine long-term concern with this one.
While it’s a blow to see him out of the festival, let’s just hope he makes a full recovery and can show us more of the exciting promise we’ve seen next season.
Sir Gino Blow Leaves Majborough as Strong Arkle Favourite
The Arkle was setting itself up to be one of the clashes of the Cheltenham Festival, with Sir Gino going up against the Willie Mullins-trained Majborough.
Despite just one run over fences, Sir Gino was favourite to win the Arkle until this news, making a striking impression on debut at Kempton, and there was plenty of excitement around his future over fences.
Sir Gino makes light work of his chasing debut! 👏
He claims an easy victory in the Ladbrokes Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase#ITVRacing | @kemptonparkrace | @NdeBoinville | @SevenBarrows pic.twitter.com/L4H5BfhLCE
— ITV Racing (@itvracing) December 27, 2024
His absence is a big blow for the festival, taking away one of the favourites, one of the home-grown big chances, and, of course, taking away our chance to see him clash with Majborough.
It’s no surprise to see Majborough now as favourite in the Arkle market, so much so that he’s odds on, with a best price of 8/13 available on him to win.
I’d argue that is more a reflection on the quality of opponent going against him rather than his quality and class, based on what we’ve seen so far. He’s been good but more workmanlike than ultra-impressive, and while he’s jumped well in parts, he’s also made a few strange errors.
The two-mile Arkle test around Cheltenham is one of the toughest jumping tests for a novice, and it is going to really push Majborough harder than he’s been pushed before.
If he jumps around, he’s a very worthy favourite and will take all the beating. But sadly, we’ve had one of the clashes of the meeting taken away from us, with Sir Gino now not making the race.
I love the Arkle, I think it’s a great race, but this season, you can’t help but feel it’s lacking a little in quality, and the betting market shows that. Just two runners are at single figure odds right now, the rest double figures and are almost classed as outsiders.
Of course, anything can happen, but for one of the feature novice races of the meeting, the standard appears to be falling a little short.