After Nicky Henderson’s declaration on Tuesday that Nico De Boinville would miss Sandown’s jumps finale and the Punchestown Festival through injury, the master of Seven Barrows announced his replacements via his Unibet blog on Wednesday. Henderson is set to send Jonbon to the Surrey venue seeking a third straight Grade 1 Celebration Chase, while both Constitution Hill and Lulamba may be primed for a trip to Ireland next week.
Declaring that he needed to “make riding plans for our horses”, Henderson is set to give the leg up to Mark Walsh on Jonbon. Walsh is JP McManus’s retained rider in Ireland, so will make the natural jump across in the green and gold at Sandown.
For the Punchestown duo, it is James Bowen set to replace De Boinville aboard Constitution Hill and Lulamba. Bowen has regularly been second choice for Henderson when he has multiple runners in any given contest and will step up to the number one role at Ireland’s season-concluding meeting.
According to Henderson, Constitution Hill “has an important gallop on Friday” ahead of a potential tilt at the Punchestown Champion Hurdle, while Lulamba “is in great form and could head over” for the Champion Four-Year-Old Hurdle. The former has fallen on his last two starts, while Lulamba was last seen finishing second in the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.