“Greg Wood in “The Guardian”:
I thought this was a weird comment:
“The Champion Hurdle is so wide open, it’s crazy,” Henderson said. “You are sitting on two horses like Constitution Hill and Sir Gino and technically, at the moment, not running either of them.”
Eh? Willie Mullins is technically and actually not going to run State Man. Why bring Sir Gino into it? He’s got a busted pelvis and an infection and will be lucky to survive.
“The difficulty of it all is if he gets round [at Cheltenham] then he’d probably be the one they have to beat. ”
Er…the last time he got round he was beaten a distance. What an arrogant comment. He’s nine, his neck and back have sustained three high speed impacts (that we know about), his legs took a battering during that Punchestown race, he’s had at least one wind op (that we know about) and who knows if his head is in the game at all. If they were all guaranteed to “get round” in some fashion, I’d still have TNL, the 3 mares, Poniros and Anzadam ahead of him. Possibly Tutti Quanti too, at least he has proven this year he can finish a race atrongly.