Age ‘no barrier to Imperial rule’
The last 10-year-old to take jump racing’s premier prize was Cool Dawn back in 1998 and before him Cool Ground in 1992.
Imperial Commander is a year younger than ever-present rivals and fellow Gold Cup winners Kauto Star and Denman, and Twiston-Davies points to his lighter career of just 18 races under Rules and a solitary Irish point-to-point.
“How old was Kauto Star comparatively, when you think how early he started (in France)?” queried the trainer.
“Imperial Commander has had very few runs. He started at a very late age, so this ageing thing doesn’t seem the same with horses – it depends how much they have done. It’s miles on the clock.”
Imperial Commander is the sponsors’ 7-2 favourite ahead of King George winner Long Run at 5s and Kauto Star and Denman at 13-2, with Twiston-Davies believing it will boil down to the older trio again.
But he is typically confident his Cheltenham specialist will be the one to lead them home.
“Everyone makes too much of racecourses,” he went on.
“He could run the other way around and he wins there (Cheltenham) because he runs there most. I don’t think his form at Haydock is very bad either.
“I suppose it inconveniences others more, because he does jump well. With the ups and downs, I don’t know whether Long Run or Diamond Harry will be quite so comfortable as they were around Newbury or Kempton.
“But certainly I fear the old brigade of Denman and Kauto Star. They are the ones that proved it and worry me more, but having said that, he’s beaten them.
“I can’t see what should be ahead of him (in the betting).
“That’s why he’s the favourite, there’s no young whippersnapper that frightens me.”
Imperial Commander has had just the one run this term, winning the Betfair Chase at Haydock, but he had to be put on hold when cutting his leg.
Twiston-Davies took him to work first at Warwick and then gave him a second spin around a racetrack at Kempton last Saturday.
“He’s easy enough to get fit and has had two racecourse gallops,” he said.
“If he’s not fit then, he never will be.”
Twiston-Davies has the endearing habit of personally driving visitors the 200 yards or so from his stables to the gallops in a rather dilapidated double-decker bus.
As it was a press open morning yesterday, he had emblazoned the vehicle with a poster reading ’Commander for Gold, Khyber for Champion, Baby for Hunters’.
Alongside Imperial Commander, Khyber Kim in the Stan James Champion Hurdle and Baby Run in the Christie’s Foxhunter Chase are easily Grange Hill Farm’s biggest fancies at their local track.
It appears to irk the trainer that last year’s Champion runner-up and Aintree Hurdle winner Khyber Kim has been ignored.
He was a well-beaten fourth behind the Cheltenham hero Binocular on his only start this season in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and returned to the Sunbury track for a gallop last Saturday.
“Khyber Kim is very much a forgotten horse in the Champion Hurdle,” he said.
“We were disappointed (in the Christmas Hurdle). We thought he was very unfit, we brought him home and his lungs were full of muck.
“He had a course of treatment and then went really well around Kempton (in a gallop).
“Everyone forgets he’s the second or third top-rated hurdler in the country by the handicappers.”
Twiston-Davies was perhaps even more elated when Baby Run, ridden by his son Sam, followed Imperial Commander’s success just over half an hour later to win the Foxhunter on a magical afternoon for the family. This time around he will be ridden by the trainer’s younger son, Willie.
“It sounds silly, but he seems better than ever this year at 11,” he said.
