MOVE ON UP
Nigel’s Champion dream alive
I LIKE TO MOVE IT kept Nigel Twiston-Davies’ Champion Hurdle dream alive by defying top weight in Cheltenham’s Greatwood Hurdle yesterday.
The trainer hopes the three-time course winner will give him another shot at winning the hurdling showpiece.
Khyber Kim was runner-up in the Champion in 2009, while TwistonDavies felt The New One was an unlucky loser in 2014.
Ridden positively by Sam TwistonDavies in the Greatwood Hurdle, 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 runnerup’s measure as they were waved around the final obstacle in the Unibetsponsored 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.
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 well-timed challenge under David Bass.
“He is a tough individual and he has got no right to be a racehorse,” said Bailey. “He has got no pedigree. He is a Yorkshire point-point horse.”