'He'll go there with a right chance' - Potters Charm Cheltenham Festival-bound after passing Grade 1 test

Christmas is a time for families pitching in together and all members of the Twiston-Davies clan played their part in a welcomed top-flight success as Potters Charm passed his biggest test with flying colours.

Potters Charm had been billed as the next star of the Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National-winning stable after an unbeaten run of four races and the pressure was on to deliver Grade 1 glory.

The well-backed even-money favourite proved up to the task when emerging from the fog clear of Miami Magic to enhance his Cheltenham Festival credentials in a race formerly run as the Tolworth Hurdle.

An impressive winner at Cheltenham last month over 2m5f, Potters Charm was dropped back in trip here instead of heading for the Challow Hurdle on Saturday in a plan orchestrated by Nigel Twiston-Davies's assistant and son Willy.

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"To drop back to two miles and win like that was so impressive," said Willy Twiston-Davies. "The horse does the talking, he's very good and it's very exciting.

"I went through the Challow so many times and it can finish a horse's season, so I thought we could drop him back in trip and sharpen his jumping.

"We'll go back up to two and a half now for the festival and he won't have another run. He's a Grade 1 winner now, who's won a Grade 2 and won well every time."

Potters Charm was cut to 12-1 (from 16) by William Hill for the Turners Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, a race the stable last won with The New One in 2013.

Potters Charm ridden by Sam Twiston-Davies win at Aintree

Potters Charm and Sam Twiston-Davies return as Grade 1 winners at AintreeCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

The five-year-old was bought at a Cheltenham sale in 2023 by Willy Twiston-Davies, who persuaded a group containing Sir Alex Ferguson and Ged Mason to take over the ownership.

"We hoped we had another like The New One and he looks like he is," he added. "It's a Grade 1 and we've not had one for a while, and to have a proper Grade 1 horse again puts our stable back in lights."

The last time Nigel Twiston-Davies claimed a Grade 1 success was with Bristol De Mai in the 2020 Betfair Chase and his other son Sam was pleased to have had a helping hand in the saddle.

"You're always nervous going into a race like this as it was his race to lose and thankfully he hasn't," said the winning jockey.

"We thought if we're going to go to Cheltenham with a realistic chance he needs to do things quicker, so we've run him over an inadequate trip to make him do it almost the wrong way round.

"He made some brilliant jumps down the back and was clever at the last, so hopefully the experience won't be lost on him.

"In festival races, you need to jump at pace and not make any fiddly little errors or get too high up in the air. We've ironed those out now and he'll go there with a right chance."

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