THE Nigel Twiston-Davies stable are keen to get on with the work of preparing The New One for the Stan James Champion Hurdle and put aside his unimpressive victory at Haydock on Saturday.
Bookmakers pushed The New One out to around 3-1 in the ante-post market for the showpiece on day one of the Cheltenham Festival on March 10 after he made hard work of beating Bertimont by two-and-a-quarter lengths in the StanJames.com Champion Hurdle Trial on Merseyside.
The New One clearly ran below his best and must up his game when he attempts to improve on his third 12 months ago as Britain's leading Champion hope will face stiff opposition from Ireland in the shape of ante-post favourite Faugheen as well as past winners Jezki and Hurricane Fly.
"He seems OK. He's come out of it fine," said Naunton-based Twiston-Davies' assistant Carl Llewellyn.
"We'd have preferred him to be more impressive. It was very difficult in that ground to go and hack up.
"We'd have all liked to have seen him win better and jump better.
"We've got seven weeks now. That's a lovely amount of time to get him right for Cheltenham and hopefully the ground will be better by then."
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