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He also bunny-hopped the previous flight as Alan Howes quoted him as not being very spectacular or so….
And yes he had an awkward tail carriage going to the fourth.If you watch it back you can see his stride shorten considerably 3 hurdles before he actually goes wrong, was lame for a while there today, not necessarily nicos fault he didnt notice as the horse didnt jump the hurdles any worse than he normally does,
Will be kicking himself now that he didnt just go straight to the fes, although, its likely he wouldn’t have made it, id be confident this was underlying
I watched the race on my phone via the RTV app, so I didn’t have the best view.
First and foremost, I am very sorry for Sir Gino and I hope he will be OK. I am also sorry for the Donnellys. They are good people and have had a lot of success but they have had far more than their fair share of absolutely rotten bad luck as well. They deserve much better.
As for today’s race, I wouldn’t go as far as some people have suggested by blaming De Boinville for what happened. However, I did think it was odd from a tactical point of view to hold up the horse from off a slow pace. He made the running at Kempton and I never like to see the best horse in a race ridden so negatively.
The questions I would ask are:
Why do incidents such as this seem to happen to Henderson horses so much? Constitution Hill, Might Bite, Sir Gino. Are his horses more fragile than those from other trainers and not battle hardened enough?
Why did Henderson run the horse today? I am not after timing by saying so – I mentioned it earlier in the thread. Henderson said after Kempton that the horse would go straight to the festival. Why the change of mind? I know it isn’t all about the festival and ideally we want to see horses run more often but this horse has only just come back from serious injury. It looked odd to run him again less than a month after his first run in a year and under a penalty as well. There was simply nothing to be gained by running him.
And I will also ask the question I raised earlier. Did Henderson (sponsored by Unibet) feel under some sort of obligation to run the horse in one of the main races Unibet sponsors? It was a surprise when he ran Constitution Hill in the race last year and even more of a surprise when he ran Sir Gino today.
I don’t think anyone can be blamed for making this association. Even if he didn’t feel under any obligation there is a perception he might have done. One more reason why bookmaker sponsorship of stables is not a good idea.
I don’t care about my antepost bet, before anyone throws that at me. Betting is just a bit of fun from my point of view. You win some, you lose some and we all know the risks of antepost.
But I hope above all that Sir Gino is all right. At his best he has been a tremendously good horse.
Good post, CAS.
I didn’t want to blame Nico for the injury, but for that cat and mouse game with TNL at the back of the field when the horses pulled a double handful. And I also want to point out that he is far from confident when riding in the big races and the horse might sense that as well.
We are used to the drama surrounding the Henderson stable and I still have to ask myself why is it him and only him that attracts such outcomes? It’s always something new, but sometimes also tragic that seems to happen to his stable.
CAS made that association with Unibet as the stable’s sponsor and I think he isn’t the only one thinking that it might have influenced Nicky’s decision to run Sir Gino today. Is it that difficult for top trainers to find other sponsors besides bookmakers?
Sir Gino is stable and comfortable right now which is great news, but it could also mean that he’s on loads of painkillers. Whatever is good for the horse should be done and I’m hoping for a full recovery and a long retirement. There would be no point of bringing him back again after he’s already had a fight for his life only a year ago.
Definitely is absolutely nothing to do with how nico rode him, as with any running injury on any animal, the faster your going the worse it tears/rips/breaks, cantering around leisurely has more than likely saved his life
And the simple answer to why does it seem to happen to hendos is the same reason people question it with mullins etc
Because the quantity of stars they have/had, happens all the time, everyday to be precise, just you dont quite like them as much because there lower profile, look at the losses this year for some stables and youll be surprised about how often it happens at hendos, its just who it happens to
Update
Henderson said: “Sir Gino was transferred from Cheltenham to the Three Counties Veterinary Clinic and following scans and x-rays he does have a fractured pelvis. Having spoken to the great team caring for him, although this is obviously significant, he is comfortable and stable.
“This is great news to us all. The prognosis is guarded and further examinations over the next few days will be able to determine the extent of the injury and any prognosis for the future.
“Thank you to everyone for their messages and concerns which are much appreciated and we will keep everyone up-to-date with any further news but the fact that he’s comfortable tonight is the most important thing.”
The tactics were simply jockeys playing silly buggers to a degree but you can understand what Nico did because he undoubtedly is/was on the quicker horse and would have been happy for the race to be turned into a sprint off the home turn.
We knew from Newcastle that Harry would have been hell bent on getting some sort of lead and being nowhere near the front, ideally he would have wanted Namean Lion to set a good strong pace to place more emphasis on TNL strong suit…his stamina (having won over 2m5f at last year’s Festival).
If that had happen and he had then managed to drop in behind Nico as well, that would likely have been his ideal scenario pre race – as the raced turned out, TNL was still tapped for toe by the other two off the turn and it took him until halfway up the run before that stamina kicked in and by the line he was firmly on top and drawing clear.
Being that it is highly likely that he will be held up in the Champion, I am still of the opinion that JP should have looked into using a pacemaker to ensure that there would be a decent gallop and not be a hostage to fortune in hoping someone else makes it a good test, a slower run tactical race will likely find him out as he doesn’t seem to have the tactical speed to deal with that type of scenario.
To me Willie simply has to run Lossiemouth in the Champion Hurdle now (assuming all goes well at the DRF), I think she has more basic speed than TNL (afterall only 5 of her 13 wins have come over further than 2m1f) and we know she also stays 2m4f very well so her being outstayed by TNL is not guaranteed and at age 7, one could argue she is certainly the right age as 4 of the last 8 winners of the race were 7 (including Honeysuckle and Golden Ace).
The best course of action now for Hendo is
1) talk up Lalumba
2) Run him at Southwell on AW in CH race
3) Suppliment him for Champion Hurdle
4) Talk about entering him in Ascot Gold Cup
Its the obvious answer .At least the news about Sir Gino gives grounds for cautious optimism.
But there always has to be some sort of drama with the Henderson stable.
Talk up Lalumba , hmmm don’t look to closely at the form it really isn’t working out , I’m 99% sure this horse will be my Festival lay , I’d be talking up the supreme horse
Great news that Sir Gino is stable.
Selfishly, i’d love to see him run again, but any sort of recovery woukd be welcome.
As for Henderson, i still hope he has a great festival. Lulamba, old park star, act of innocence, jonbon, impose toi, jango baie. Might have no winners but he still represents britains best chance in the grade 1s, considerably.
Why did Henderson run the horse today? I am not after timing by saying so – I mentioned it earlier in the thread. Henderson said after Kempton that the horse would go straight to the festival. Why the change of mind? I know it isn’t all about the festival and ideally we want to see horses run more often but this horse has only just come back from serious injury. It looked odd to run him again less than a month after his first run in a year and under a penalty as well. There was simply nothing to be gained by running him.
I agree CAS…
What I would say is though
Henderson always says he puts the horses first so I’m sure he had his reasons
If he had pulled him out he still would have been bashed from all angles about cotton wool etcCharles Darwin to conquer the World
Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
Must admit I thought the horse was carrying his tail oddly but didn’t think too much of it.The more I know the less I understand.
“Why did Henderson run the horse today? I am not after timing by saying so – I mentioned it earlier in the thread. Henderson said after Kempton that the horse would go straight to the festival. Why the change of mind? It looked odd to run him again less than a month after his first run in a year and under a penalty as well.”
Henderson said end of last month it was ‘The Unibet Hurdle or nothing’, I put the quote up in the Champion Hurdle thread. So, as I’ve said, I don’t believe he was pressured in to running, it was a possibility back then, that if they felt he needed another run, they would run him. Xmas Hurdle 26 Dec to the Unibet Hurdle 24 Jan is near enough a month between races. And the penalty was a small one, small enough for him to overcome connections would have felt if he had run his race.
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