Nigel Twiston-Davies’ William Hill blog: Cheltenham is I Like To Move It’s favourite track

The Christmas period has been good, but we’ve had a few too many seconds which have been a little frustrating.

I thought Zambella was very impressive in the Yorkshire Silver Vase at Doncaster on Thursday, and I wonder if she’s improving, even. Those other horses in the race are the only ones who have ever beaten her, and she trounced them! Her jumping was brilliant – in fact, I think it’s getting better and better still.

We’ll run her once more before Cheltenham, either at Huntingdon or Uttoxeter, then it’s onto the Mares’ Chase. She was only beaten by four lengths in it last year and, if she’s improved and we get her there a little bit fresher than last time, she could go very nicely.

Of those that came second, Equinus is a very nice horse who ran very green initially, but he is getting better every time. Cuthbert Dibble is also improving massively with every run. These two should win next time, with any luck.

Poor Sergeant Wilson, though – it wasn’t his race at all. We’re looking at all the options to try and help him settle and show us what we know he can do.

Newbury, New Year’s Eve

I’ve two nice ones running at Newbury. Idalko Bihoue (3:00pm) is a very, very nice horse, but is obviously stepping up massively in grade in the Challow Hurdle. He wants a strong pace, he jumps well, he’s got speed and I’m looking forward to seeing where we are with him. He’s among the best of our novice hurdlers, certainly, and he couldn’t have impressed me more at Worcester, so I feel it’s time to roll the dice.

Then there’s Undersupervision (2:25pm), who ran on like mad at the end of his run at Cheltenham in December and is certainly one to keep an eye on. He runs in the Mandarin Handicap Chase and will hopefully go close if taking a step forward from that reappearance.

Cheltenham, New Year’s Day

I’m sending quite a team of horses to Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, including Weveallbeencaught (12:10pm), who we all think a lot of. He’s a three-miler, really, who’s been very good over two and half miles even so, but the Cheltenham hill will help him out, and with another run under his belt, I expect he’ll really perform. He’s looking pretty good at home.

Poppa Poutine (12:45pm), who’s up a couple of pounds since his last run, is one I’m always hopeful for. He’s such a genuine horse, who has, unfortunately for him, usually found one better than him in a race. His day will come, though.

Beauport (1:20pm) is much better than his last run at Haydock. The more rain the better for him this weekend. He ran well at Carlisle because it had that soft ground which he likes. He needs to jump a bit better than he did at Haydock, but we know he can.

I Like To Move It (2:30pm) is ready to go. We really wanted that run at the Cheltenham International Meeting, so it was a huge shame to have to miss it. This looks a hot race, but Cheltenham’s his favourite track, he’s an improving horse and he should go well.

Mr Mackay (3:40pm) was second to a good horse of Paul Nicholls’ last time out. I hope that he will have improved since then.

The stand out ones for me this weekend are, undoubtedly, Weveallbeencaught and I Like To Move It. Let’s see what they show us on Sunday.

Happy New Year from all of us at Grange Hill Farm!