Updated at 21.20

NICKY HENDERSON has confirmed after veterinary assessment that Sir Gino suffered a fractured pelvis in the Unibet Hurdle at Cheltenham.

The six-year-old was the odds-on favourite in the Grade Two event and had been the ante-post market leader for the Champion Hurdle, but was forced to pull up just after halfway.

After being attended to by the on-course veterinary team, he was able to walk into the horse ambulance.

He had returned to action in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton Park on Boxing Day after a year off the track, enforced by a nasty infection in his leg which at one point had threatened his career.

However, he showed his engine was still intact there when beating the current champion Golden Ace with plenty to spare.

In an update on his X account on Saturday evening, 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. But having spoken to the great team that are caring for him, they are hopeful that although this is obviously significant, they have reported that he is comfortable and stable. This is great news to us all.

“The prognosis is guarded and further examinations over the next few days while he is there 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.”

Henderson had said in the immediate aftermath of the incident: “They were able to put him into the ambulance, it’s his right-hind, it appears to be high up, so there’s no lower limb fractures — it would appear to be a pelvic injury at the moment.

“He has loaded, and I’d rather they take him to Three Counties veterinary hospital without unloading her,e and then they can assess and scan and just see where we are. Everybody is fighting.

“Pelvic injuries can be little or big, so we’ve just got to keep everything crossed.”

He added, “I’ve been lucky enough to have many good horses, but I haven’t had many like him, I can tell you that.”

Dan Skelton’s The New Lion won the Unibet Hurdle.

Billed as a match between potentially the two best two-mile hurdles in Britain, both were biding their time in the four-runner race when Sir Gino appeared to land awkwardly at the flight at the top of the hill, and Nico de Boinville pulled him up.

Harry Skelton was content to take a lead for as long as possible on The New Lion, a winner over two miles and five furlongs at the Festival in March, before he asked him to quicken approaching the last.

Nemean Lion and Brentford Hope proved tough adversaries, before The New Lion (9-4) eventually got on top to win by a length and a half.

Spillane's Tower and jockey Jack Kennedy win the Grade 2 Betfair Cotswold Chase for trainer James Joseph Mangan and owner Mr J. P. McManus. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Elsewhere, Spillane’s Tower roared back to his very best to take victory in the Betfair Cotswold Chase on Trials day at Cheltenham.

Jimmy Mangan’s stable star has always shaped as potentially a real top-notcher, and after a couple of comeback runs over hurdles, his Grand National-winning trainer was confident of a big run.

Jack Kennedy was happy to let L’Homme Presse bowl along in front, and while Grey Dawning also took a stalking role, in his case in third of the four starters, his chance ultimately went with a bad mistake at the second-last.

Ahead of him, Kennedy was in cruise control coming to the final fence on the JP McManus-owned 11-4 winner, and while L’Homme Presse did not go down without a fight, it was the Irish raider who was three-quarters of a length to the good at the line.

Paddy Power made the winner 10-1 for the Gold Cup in March, and after registering his first UK winner since Monty’s Pass landed the National in 2003, Mangan said: “I would have gone back to Ireland a disappointed man if he had put up a poor show today.

“We were very confident today with him, and Grey Dawning is a very good horse, and Venetia’s (Williams, L’Homme Presse) horse has made him fight; it was no walkover. I suppose you do have to start dreaming of the Gold Cup, and he’s in that grade now. We’ll speak to Frank (Berry, racing manager) and JP.

“Without using the racecourse as a schooling ground, we’ve had to get him fit, so we’ve mixed and matched between fences and hurdles, and I was disappointed in his run over hurdles.

“It was trainer error because he had travelled all the way to Down Royal, five hours there and five hours back and then ran him the following Saturday, and he was flat.

“He’s a lovely horse, and he’s a star. I wouldn’t mind a few more like him, and if it wasn’t for JP sending me horses like him, I might be closed, but that’s the way the game goes, you are at the top of the ladder one minute and then at the bottom the next.

“It’s my first in Britain since Monty’s Pass, and I thought I nearly had one with Oscar Delta one da,y but this is great.”

Venetia Williams is also inclined to send her runner-up to the big one after doing all he could to defend his Cotswold Chase crown.

She said: “If you go back to the King George last season, we were ahead of Spillane’s Tower off levels, but we were giving him 6lb today.

“I think at three out all three horses thought they would go by us, but Charlie (Deutsch) wasn’t going too hard all the way round, and he had to keep the revs up at that point as he couldn’t afford to let it turn into a sprint, which the others might have preferred.

“He’s a fantastic horse and has never been the easiest to train. I didn’t stop yelling for him all the way up the run-in, and I knew if L’Homme Presse was neck-and-neck up the run-in, he would have every chance. But in the end, the margin remained the same all the way.

“They put considerable distance back to the third, and I think we’ve got to come back in March. There is the best part of two months between now and then, so we will discuss things with the owners and make a plan.”

Dan Skelton was also far from despondent as he focused firmly on one day in March.

He said: “I did wonder how I would feel if he got beat, and I’m disappointed to get beat, but I’m not disappointed with the overall feel of the race.

“He jumped very well, there wasn’t much pace on, and it turned into a bit of a sprint up the hill. He missed a crucial fence and then stayed on afterwards, and I was most encouraged at the staying on to the line after the mistake.

“He didn’t win, but we needed to run, and I couldn’t keep him up there for so long. We trained him up, and he needed this run.

“I’m training him for the Gold Cup this year, and I’m not going to get to the 11th hour and forget it.

“We’re happy with the fact we’ve got a run under our belt, and 90% of the race he looked great, jumped well and then stayed on after a mistake that may or may not have cost him victory.

“We felt coming into the race, Spillane’s Tower would be the one to beat, but I’m not discouraged for March. I’ve no doubt we will reverse form, but whether we will beat the others, only time will tell.”