The exciting Sir Gino is set to spearhead a small but select team of novice hurdlers for trainer Nicky Henderson at this year's Cheltenham Festival.
A winner on debut in the Listed Prix Monarch at Auteuil in April, Sir Gino was purchased by the Donnelly's and came to Seven Barrows with a big reputation.
"I think we always thought he was very good, but we didn't want to get too carried away before we actually got to see it," said Henderson.
"He's only had two races for us, he'd had one in France before we got hold of him, but he is a very talented horse."
Sir Gino started 4/9 favourite on his stable debut at Kempton in December and was a comfortable fourteen-length winner, despite numerous jumping errors throughout the race. The gelding's lack of fluency was a surprise to his new trainer:
"He wasn't very good at Kempton, which I was surprised about. Most of that was babyish, he missed a couple of them along the way. Normally we'd expect these French horses to be able to do it in their sleep, they are very very good at schooling young horses.
"The French horses can nearly all do it blindfolded but he didn't do it blindfolded at Kempton, he was untidy - so yes, we did do quite a bit (of schooling) between Kempton and Cheltenham."
Jumps fans were treated to a pre-Festival clash between the top two juvenile hurdlers in the country on Cheltenham Trials Day at the end of January, with James Owen's Burdett Road and Sir Gino going head-to-head in the Grade 2 Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle. Sir Gino came out on top under a positive ride from James Bowen, jumping cleanly throughout and relishing the challenge of the Cheltenham hill.
Although cautious of the Cheltenham form, Henderson remains optimistic that the Irish challenge can be repelled.
"It was a good performance, as long as that was the Burdett Road that turned up. I mean, if he was ten pounds below his best, we'd have still won but it would have been close. You're assuming Burdett Road has run to his previous form.
"I think he's very good. The race I was watching most carefully from the Dublin Racing Festival was the four-year-old hurdle to see what they'd got. It looked like they finished in a bit of a heap to say I was expecting something to jump out of that race. It didn't look obvious, there's some nice horses in there but nothing that could do what Gino did at Cheltenham that day."
Sir Gino heads the betting at 5/6 for Friday's Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle, with his Irish-trained rivals Majborough and Kargese his nearest market pursuers. Whilst victory at this year's Cheltenham Festival would be exciting for connections, there may be bigger targets for the four-year-old further down the line.
"The Triumph is tough. This is a big horse with great scope, he'd jump a fence. He's got bags of scope. Sometimes you might have said you'd give him another year and wait with him, but we've got this far."
