NIGEL MAKES A WINNING MOVE
I LIKE TO Move It kept Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Festival dream alive by defying top weight in Cheltenham’s Greatwood Hurdle yesterday.
The local trainer hopes the three-time course winner will give him another shot at winning the Champion Hurdle.
Khyber Kim, on the 2009 Greatwood Hurdle roll of honour, was runner-up in the two-mile showpiece — while Twiston-Davies felt The New One was an unlucky loser in 2014.
Ridden positively by Sam Twiston-Davies, I Like To Move It (17-2) threw his hat into the ring by holding the 4-1 favourite Gin Coco by five-and-a-half lengths.
The leader already had the runner-up’s measure as they were waved around the final obstacle in the Unibet-sponsored contest — one of several to be omitted due to the low sun.
Twiston-Davies will aim I Like To Move It, a horse named by two of his younger children, at next month’s International Hurdle.
“It looks quite busy the Champion Hurdle but that is the idea at the moment,” he said.
Surprise package Does He Know (6-1) capitalised on Kim Bailey’s back-up plan in the Jewson Handicap Chase. Originally due to run at Sandown last weekend, the seven-year-old came with a welltimed challenge under David Bass. “He has got no right to be a racehorse,” said Bailey. “He has got no pedigree.”
■ ALDANITI’S 1981 Grand National-winning colours were carried to victory by Slipway in Fontwell’s Southern National.