Nigel Twiston-Davies, the trainer of The New One, said on Thursday that he believes his horse should be “one of four co-favourites” for the Champion Hurdle on 10 March, a race in which The New One ran on to finish third last season after being badly hampered in the early stages. “It seems just as strong a race [as last year],” Twiston-Davies said. “It’s just is Faugheen [the hot 5-4 favourite] as good as the markets say?”
The New One is the only British-trained contender at odds shorter than 40-1 for the feature race on the first day of the Cheltenham Festival, but is expected to go off as the second-favourite next month behind Faugheen, one of three runners in the race from Willie Mullins’ dominant Irish yard. The field also includes Jezki, last year’s winner, and Mullins’ hugely popular Hurricane Fly, successful in the race in both 2011 and 2013.
Every punter and bookmaker has an opinion about how much ground The New One lost in last year’s Champion Hurdle when Our Conor, the previous year’s Triumph Hurdle winner, suffered a fatal fall at the third flight. He was eventually beaten just under three lengths by Jezki, however, having stayed on strongly up the hill to relegate Hurricane Fly to fourth place, and Twiston-Davies believes he conceded far more than that.
“It has to be eight to 10 lengths that he lost,” Twiston-Davies said, “and then you stop and you start again. In any sport, you’d have thought that it’s going to be really hard work to do that. It’s the same as a crunching mistake that stops a horse, you usually write off the race then. He was brought to a standstill and then he had to pick himself up and carry on.”
The New One has won all four of his starts so far this season, including the International Hurdle at Cheltenham in December. He produced an unconvincing performance on very soft ground in his most recent start at Haydock, however, while Faugheen has been deeply impressive in all three of his outings since winning the Neptune Investment Management Novice Hurdle at last year’s Festival.
“It was bottomless at Haydock and that’s not going to happen at Cheltenham in March,” Twiston-Davies said. “It was battle of the Somme conditions that day.
“The second horse [Bertimont, beaten two-and-a-quarter lengths] was well behind us at Cheltenham, but we were giving him 8lb and he’s now gone up in the weights. You could argue that The New One was 6lb below his best in ground he positively hated.
“When Sam [Twiston-Davies, The New One’s jockey] asked him to quicken, he was hating every bit of it and it took him some time, but then away he went, same as always. In all his races this season apart from Haydock, he has been on the bridle at the last hurdle and then quickened away nicely. What more could you want?”
Without diminishing the strength of the challenge The New One faces at Cheltenham, Twiston-Davies also believes that Faugheen, who is unbeaten in eight races including three Grade One events, still has something to prove.
“No way could you knock him,” the trainer said. “He’s done brilliantly, but it’s the same as The New One this season, what has he beaten?
“I think [The New One] has done brilliantly this season, [but] I’d say the same with Faugheen, they haven’t been racing against championship horses at any stage.”
Like Faugheen, The New One took the Neptune Hurdle in his novice season, though Faugheen was the 6-4 favourite for his race while The New One started second-favourite at 7-2 in 2013.
“It’s definitely easier than last year [when The New One was disputing favouritism in the Champion Hurdle] because we’re not meant to win, so that’s nice and the pressure is totally off,” Twiston-Davies said.
“When he won the Neptune two years ago, he couldn’t win, because there was Pont Alexandre and another Irish horse and one of them was definitely going to win. We shouldn’t have turned up, but we did, and that was quite pleasant. You could say the same with Imperial Commander, he shouldn’t have turned up when it was Denman and Kauto Star [in the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup], but he did and he won. It’s nicer that way.”
Saeed bin Suroor took the UAE Oaks for the 10th time at Meydan racecourse in Dubai on Thursday when the favourite Local Time, sent off at 1-4, cantered to victory in the Group Three event. Local Time could now take on the colts in the UAE Derby, one of the supporting events on the Dubai World Cup card on 28 March.
