One to savour for Twiston-Davies
The New One (1-2 favourite) routed the opposition in the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle, maintaining an enviable record which totals just one defeat in last year’s Festival Bumper.
His jockey Sam Twiston-Davies said: “The sky is the limit.”
The trainer himself said: “He seems to have so much speed and staying power and it’s a shame we haven’t really learned anything, as some of the others didn’t go in the ground and he wasn’t tested.
“He won but we still don’t know enough about him and that encourages me to look at the programme book and find another two-and-a-half-miler for him in order to give him some more experience.”
The New One now looks set to return to Cheltenham on January 26 before a crack at the Festival in March, with the Neptune race there looking his favoured option.
Team Twiston-Davies also took the concluding bumper with Pure Science (5-1) a nine-length winner while former Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Imperial Commander sparkled in a spin before racing.
Rigadin De Beauchene (5-1) put the icing on the cake of what has been a bountiful start to the month for trainer Venetia Williams when getting up in the shadow of the post to deny Godsmejudge and the gallant Pete The Feat in the Betfred Classic Chase.
The eight-year-old put his jumping issues behind him under a determined Robbie Dunne to pull the race out of the fire after he was seemingly booked for third at the second-last fence.
Dunne intentionally steered a wide course on Rigadin De Beauchene in the straight, a ploy that paid off as the combination reeled in the battling leaders with 50 yards to travel to win by half a length.
Williams said: “Robbie swept wide into the straight and managed to get the horse to meet the last fence on a good stride which I think was very important.
“His owner Andrew Wiles hopes he may emulate his half-brother Miko De Beauchene and win the Welsh National next season. I think Andrew might have reservations about him going for the Grand National itself though. He’s had issues with his jumping.”
The Paul Nicholls-trained Rocky Creek (7-4) is another who has Festival ambitions after a smooth success in the Betfred Mobile Lotto Novices’ Chase.
“I had the favourite covered and just wanted him to give me a lead into the straight before pressing on,” said jockey Daryl Jacob.
“He’s a horse for the future and will be a truly super chaser in time. He’s a possible Cheltenham horse for sure providing the ground there isn’t too quick.”
Another heading to Cheltenham is Charlie Longsdon’s Ely Brown (12-1) who won the Pertemps Qualifier in gritty style from Holywell.
Longsdon said: “I said to Noel (Fehily) he had to win again if he was going to get to Cheltenham and after this he certainly deserves to take his chance.
“If he goes up 5lb it will be his ticket booked. He was second here last year and when I looked down today’s field I thought it was quite a lot tougher.”
Barry Geraghty followed a remarkable recovery on Tetlami by sweeping up Kempton’s feature William Hill Lanzarote Hurdle aboard his Nicky Henderson-trained stablemate Oscara Dara.
Geraghty somehow prevented himself from being dislodged when Tetlami stumbled through the final fence of the first circuit of the williamhill.com Novices’ Chase but ultimately the 30-100 favourite raced to a convincing success.
Oscara Dara’s own chasing career had stalled after he was beaten on his debut at Plumpton and he had not been convincing Henderson with his jumping of fences at home.
Fourth to stablemate Darlan at Aintree, Oscara Dara (5-1) went on to score at the Punchestown Festival and at this stage seems to find the smaller obstacles more appealing as he won decisively.
Henderson said: “We had it in our minds all year that he would go chasing and he was in everywhere this week but I schooled him and I wasn’t confident enough to run him over fences again.
“We put him over hurdles, which was plan B, but I think we’ll have to stick with plan B at least for the time being.”
