Festival Watch: Not new but Twiston-Davies believes he’s got ’The One’

But friends told him to keep the faith and his decision to continue reaped dividends when Imperial Commander won the Cheltenham Gold Cup seven years ago.

And now Twiston-Davies believes he’ll be rewarded again when Champion Hurdle hope The New One looks to make history at the Cheltenham Festival in just over one week’s time.

The Naunton handler lights up when he discusses a horse that he’s taken into the winners’ enclosure on 18 occasions, including a Festival victory four years ago.

Favourite Yanworth has got 12 lifetime runs on his record, as many times as Twiston-Davies’s stable star has appeared on the Cheltenham race track.

The other big fancy, Nicky Henderson’s Buveur D'air, was just a few months old when The New One made the first of five Festival appearances with a sixth place in the Champion Bumper.

In the last 35 years only three nine-year olds have won the Champion Hurdle - Royal Gait, Rooster Booster and Hurricane Fly.

And you have to go back to the fabled Sea Pigeon in 1980 to find a horse that has won the two-mile race at the fourth attempt.

The New One is certainly anything but new but it could be quite a Festival for the old campaigners, with 12-year old Cue Card now favourite to win the Gold Cup, where a victory would make him the oldest winner since 1969.

But Twiston-Davies isn’t much of a believer in the trends.

The New One should have won the Champion Hurdle three years ago when he was beaten by three lengths by Jezki, after being badly hampered in the closing stages.

But he wasn't good enough 12 months on and last year was soundly beaten by Annie Power, trailing home outside the money in fourth place.

Some, including Twiston-Davies’s jockey son Sam, believe he should have stepped up in distance to take on the three-mile Stayers’ Hurdle, the Festival’s third day showpiece.

But from the moment he arrived at Grange Hill Farm, Twiston-Davies has thought The New One was a Champion Hurdle winner - where a victory would arguably be his training career highlight, eclipsing both his Grand National triumphs and Imperial Commander’s Gold Cup success.

And the cards have fallen in his favour too - with the last two winners, Faugheen and Annie Power, absent and last season’s stand-out novices Altior and Yorkhill both sent chasing this season.

Indeed Henderson even bought Buveur D'air back from his planned route over fences because he wanted to exploit the gap in a weak Champion Hurdle market.

“I think, because of how long he’s been with us and everything that’s happened with him, it would be the highlight of everything,” said Twiston-Davies.

“It’s about time it happened for him and it would be wonderful for everyone here and his owners.

“Cheltenham brings the best out of him and hopefully this is the year when everything falls right because he’s just a lovely, lovely horse.

“We are happier with him than we’ve been for a long time, since October he has not taken an unsound step.

“When he won at the International in December he sparkled, he just loves Cheltenham and he’ll be flying up that hill next Tuesday afternoon.

“Sam thought he should run in the Stayers but we are in agreement now about it. Besides I think Unowhatimeanharry is an outstanding favourite for the Stayers’ and there isn’t an outstanding one in the Champion, so it’s all to play for.

“It’s a race that’s not as hot as it has been with the withdrawals. The handicapper is supposed to be always right and if you look at the ratings The New One should be right there."

The New One won on soft ground at Cheltenham last December and in his most engagement at Haydock, where conditions were certainly attritional.

Festival ground is traditionally good-to-soft but an expected deluge of rain in Gloucestershire has seen odds shorten that the meeting will open on soft ground.

That could see a shift in the markets, with potential value in looking again at selections for the opening race, the two-mile Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

The likes of Harry Fry’s Neon Wolf and Colin Tizzard’s Finian’s Oscar - who are being aimed at the slightly longer Neptune next Wednesday - are both available at long-odds, while Philip Hobb’s talented juvenile Defi Du Seuil is running in the Triumph Hurdle.

Simon Claisse, Cheltenham’s clerk of the course, usually finds a way to get the going he wants but if the Festival starts on soft ground, expect to see some horses currently trading at big prices shift their engagements.

Sportsbeat 2017