Nigel Twiston-Davies believes Imperial Commander will rule
Nigel Twiston-Davies believes that neither he nor his stable star has anything to prove.
However, history dictates that Imperial Commander’s victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup last March, far from cementing his place on the top of the mountain, simply threw down his greatest challenge yet.
For every horse like Kauto Star and three-times winner Best Mate, there have been horses like Imperial Call, Kicking King and War of Attrition, only one of whom ever made it to the race again as injuries robbed them of the gifts that had set them apart, if only for one special day in the Cotswolds.
Twiston-Davies is planning a three-race campaign for Imperial Commander, starting with the Grade One Betfair Chase at Haydock Park on November 20th. It was in this race last season that the nine-year-old proved that he could live with the best when he ran Kauto Star to just a nose, but then his star nosedived with a second tame performance behind Kauto Star in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park on Boxing day.
However, it was Imperial Commander who landed the knockout blow to those who believed that Gold Cup was simply a private match between Kauto Star and Denman when he won by seven lengths. His trainer then declared that the Grade One totesport Bowl at the Grand National meeting was nothing more than a “penalty kick” only for the horse to unseat jockey Paddy Brennan at the fifth fence, having seemed thoroughly out of sorts.
Six months on and Twiston-Davies feels that Imperial Commander is much more forward for the start of this season, which will see Imperial Commander race three times if all goes to plan; with the King George and Gold Cup on the agenda after Haydock. “Imperial Commander is definitely more forward this year,” he said. “This has been a conscious effort - he was far from fit last year in the Betfair Chase.
“We’ve mapped out a programme of three runs for him this season and we will make sure he is fit for the first one. He has a good time after each race to get ready for the next one. We hope he’s still improving. He started racing very late and during his very first season, before we had him, he hurt his knees. He’s only had 18 runs, which is not very much for a Gold Cup winner.
“I love my horses to run but for a horse like him there are not many races to go for. It was disastrous at Aintree at the end of last season - it was my idea to go there and it was hard to see a Gold Cup winner get beat. He upset himself at Aintree when making a mistake at the second but was fine afterwards. He got blinded momentarily at the second fence in the King George at Kempton and that put paid to his chance there last year - he was basically out of the race but kept going and came from miles back to be fifth. He was jumping well and lost the race at the second. To say he does not go right-handed is nonsense.
“The year before in the King George he had a lung infection - he was the only horse to take the race to Kauto Star at the bottom bend but was patently wrong afterwards - his lungs were full of muck which is why he could not win that day. He has never jumped left and he worked well around Kempton before this year’s Gold Cup.”
However, if Imperial Commander is to win the King George he will have to do so against a background of the trainer’s poor statistics at that time of year. Twiston-Davies is currently second in the trainers’ championship, with a solid strike-rate of 21%, which is in keeping with his performance in previous seasons. However, in four out of the last five seasons, his strike-rate percentage has dropped single figures in December before picking up again in the spring.
Whether Twiston-Davies has found a way to change that will only be proved later but he has already accepted that he and his horse will be firmly in the spotlight between now and their defence of the Gold Cup – whether he likes it or not. “This season there will be a lot of pressure in the build-up to the Cheltenham Gold Cup, which I don’t like, whereas last season all the focus was on Kauto Star and Denman. I almost felt sorry for Imperial Commander as it seemed that he was not considered up to Gold Cup standard beforehand.
“Kauto Star and Denman now have questions to answer rather than the other way around. But obviously, they are amazingly good horses and I respect them and am afraid of them. We look forward to taking them on again.”
If only to prove his point.
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