Why Gold Cup winner is desperate to prove the doubters wrong again

NIGEL Twiston-Davies loves to be under-estimated. It brings out the best in him – and his horses.

His personal pride was self-evident when Imperial Commander won a memorable Gold Cup 12 months ago.

Overlooked in the pre-race hype that revolved around former champions Kauto Star and Denman, Twiston-Davies took pleasure, with a typically barbed comment, in pointing out that the Gold Cup is “never a two-horse race”.

And he will be on his ‘I told you so’ soapbox again this afternoon if Khyber Kim – the ‘forgotten’ horse in Stan James Champion Hurdle – goes one better than last year when second to Binocular.

With the reigning champion sidelined, the Twiston-Davies horse is now the highest-rated hurdler in this year’s renewal – the day one highlight of the centenary National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham.

Yet the focus has been on the respective merits of the battling Menorah; the unbeaten Peddlers Cross and Hurricane Fly, the pride of Ireland attempting to give the record-breaking Ruby Walsh a first victory in the race.

It has played right into the hands of Twiston-Davies who is bristling with indignation when he says: “Khyber Kim is the second or third top-rated hurdler in the country. He is 25-1 and I have helped myself to the price!

“He has not won this year, perhaps that is why he has been forgotten, but he is as good as ever. He was not well after the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton as he had muck in his lungs so if you think of that, he did not run badly at all.

“He would have been an exceptional winner of the Champion Hurdle last year if Binocular had not been there – but he was and we have to go one better this year.”

Paddy Brennan, the Twiston-Davies stable jockey, is not surprised by his trainer’s enthusiasm – or confidence.

“Why is he so successful? He has more belief than any other trainer in the country,” Brennan told the Yorkshire Post.

“He believes in making the impossible happen. That’s his secret. He’s done it time and time again.

“Tell Nigel something can’t be done – I’ve said it about various horses – and that’s enough. He will prove you wrong. He’s right. I’m wrong.

“And don’t forget, he does it with horses that are comparatively cheap compared to the sums paid by the Nicholls and Henderson stables for example; his judgement is second-to-none. Two Grand Nationals and a Gold Cup. Says it all.”

The trainer’s optimism has rubbed off on the 30-year-old jockey who is regarded by many as a future champion. “If Khyber Kim runs as well as he did last year, he will win.” Point taken.

Despite a chequered build-up, Brennan and Twiston-Davies are equally emphatic about Imperial Commander successfully defending his Gold Cup crown on Friday – even though he has only raced once this season when narrowly beating a fast-finishing Tidal Bay in Haydock’s Betfair Chase last November.

Since then, the 10-year-old Cheltenham course specialist suffered the indignity of being beaten in a racecourse gallop at Warwick by the previously unknown Oscar Magic, who could be a surprise package in tomorrow’s Bumper.

Just mention the fact that no horse of this vintage has won the Gold Cup since Mandarin in 1962, and Twiston-Davies has a glint in his eye as he considers the merits of Long Run, the six-year-old who won the King George for owner Robert Waley-Cohen and cost a reported £500,000.

“Imperial Commander seems brimming with health and happiness,” says the upbeat trainer whose yard is an extended canter from Cheltenham. “I very much hope he can win again – no hugely worrying horse has turned up on the scene.

“The standard of the Gold Cup is high – they are good Gold Cups at the moment and if we can win then Imperial Commander will be up there with the best of all time.

“We have got the best horse in the country and it is nice to be able to say that. Last year we were forgotten and nobody thought we had a chance and so to win the Gold Cup was brilliant. Now I have the champion and he has to beat them all off again.

“We were confident last year and we are confident again this year because we are expected to win. Imperial Commander hasn’t got many miles on the clock and I don’t think 10 is very old.”

A self-confessed failed rider, the race that will mean the most to Twiston-Davies is not the Gold Cup or Champion Hurdle but the least valuable contest of the entire week – the Christie’s Foxhunters, the ‘blue riband’ race for amateur riders.

Staged 40 minutes after the Gold Cup, it was won last year by the Twiston-Davies owned Baby Run with his nerveless eldest son Sam – now a top professional – in the saddle.

His biggest worry was finding someone to tack up the horse.

This year, family pride rests with Sam’s brother Willie, two years younger at 16, and who is buoyed by a recent pillar-to-post win on the 11-year-old horse at Wetherby.

This will be his life when he leaves school in the summer. He cannot wait.

He tweeted from his classroom the other day: “English at the minute, not a great fan.”

Twiston-Davies senior, 53, smiled when he learned of this remark.

His ambition is not to be champion trainer, but simply to be in a position to pass on a his successful business to his sons in a decade’s time.

“I am very happy with both Sam and Willie. I am a very proud dad. Their riding never fails to amaze me – where did they get it from?” he pondered.

“To win the Gold Cup again would be just superb, while to take the Foxhunter again would be even better and let’s hope we can win the Champion Hurdle.”

They are remarks that are the personification of Nigel Twiston-Davies, racing’s ultimate underdog who revels in making the impossible happen. Never bet against him.

Five other rides to look out for from the stable

Nigel Twiston-Davies knows the success of his week will be judged on the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup. Yet this master trainer has a series of horses that could – with luck – see him become the Festival’s leading handler.

Here, in his own words, he talks through five other horses with leading chances.

Major Malarkey

“The ground was a bit soft for him last time at Haydock but he is a very nice horse and I would be very hopeful of him running a big race in the National Hunt Chase. Two years ago, Tricky Trickster won the race for us and this is a horse along the same lines.”

Sybarite

“I am hoping he is my next Imperial Commander. I am looking forward to running him in the Albert Bartlett and I have no worries about him stepping up to three miles. That is what he wants and he is in very good form.”

Baby Run

“A great favourite round the yard and has been with us a long time. He broke down so badly three or four years ago and was given to me but he is a tremendous horse and has done everything we have asked of him. He seems better than ever at 11 – it sounds ridiculous – and my son Willie gets on well with him.”

Pigeon Island

“I think he will go back for the Grand Annual again which he won last year. We were all astounded with that victory. He has other options but let’s go for it again.”

Oscar Magic

“He is entered in the Champion Bumper and won well at Kempton. Hopefully, he could be my Cue Card. He was 8,000 euros from the sales in Ireland – we broke him and he has just blossomed. I think that Oscar Magic could be an exceptional horse.”