Bristol’s shaping up so well for Twiston-Davies

NIGel TWISTON-DaVIeS believes Saturday’s Betfair Chase at Haydock is the ideal race for Bristol De Mai.

With two wins at the Merseyside track and a weather forecast that looks like providing his preferred testing conditions, the six-year-old is 13-8 favourite after seven horses were left in at the penultimate forfeit stage.

as well as Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Sizing John, the opposition will include Outlander and Cue Card, who would emulate kauto Star with a fourth victory in the race.

But trainer Twiston-Davies (below) is confident of the chances of Bristol De Mai, especially after his victory in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby two weeks ago, where he gave stablemate Blaklion six pounds but still won by half a length. He said: ‘It looks perfect for Bristol De Mai. He has had the benefit of a run. He is an exciting horse. He is only six and we hope he is coming to his best now. It was a good performance giving six pounds to Blaklion.’ Sizing John landed the Irish Gold Cup, Cheltenham Gold Cup and Punchestown Gold Cup last year and trainer Jessica Harrington said: ‘My only worry is the three hard races might leave a mark on him. But he had hard races the year before and seemed to come out of it very well.’ an appeal by Flat jockey Graham Gibbons against a two-year ban for testing positive to cocaine and trying to dupe testers by swapping his urine sample has been dismissed.