Nigel Twiston-Davies: My five leading lights for this season

Nigel Twiston-Davies has high hopes for his stable stars this season, with three-time Betfair Chase winner Bristol De Mai among his team once again.

The 11-year-old is set to contest the Haydock showpiece for the sixth time on Saturday, November 19, and the popular grey will bid to emulate Kauto Star, the only four-time winner of the race.

Twiston-Davies also has a few promising youngsters who could reach a high level over the coming months, and the William Hill ambassador has provided the inside track on his five main hopes for the 2022-23 Jumps season.

He still shows his great love for the job. He still loves his racing. We can’t see any reason this year why he can’t be as good as he has been.

He still shows us all the enthusiasm and verve, and what’s even better is that when he was younger he used to be quite fragile, but now he’s tough as teak and doesn’t seem to have as many problems.

I think he’s certainly up to the level of the Betfair Chase, and though he is reliant on softer ground, it does rain a lot up there at Haydock. Hopefully, he’ll get another crack at equalling Kauto Star’s four wins in the race.

Fantastikas has got the signs of being our next National horse, hopefully. He really stays well, jumps brilliantly, and does everything right.

He’s the ideal horse to be targeting at the nationals and long distance chases this season. He’s only a seven-year-old and still has fairly low mileage, but I don’t see why he can’t be taking on the big races sooner rather than later.

He always gives his absolute best. He ran at Perth in a novice chase, where he just needed the run, and then won well at Ascot despite his main rival falling at the second last.

It will be a season of novice chasing for him, and hopefully he’ll continue to improve as the season goes on. We’ve always held him in very high regard and I can’t see why the very top novice chases shouldn’t be our target. Hopefully he’ll be a Graded winner by the end of the season – he’s a very good horse.

I’m really excited about Guard Your Dreams going novice chasing this year. He’s a Grade 2 winner and Grade 1 placed over hurdles, and he’s been jumping fences really well at home.

He’s been pretty versatile in terms of trip too, with plenty of success anywhere from 2m-2m4f, so he’s got plenty of options.

I’m delighted that Zambella is still in training. She won three races and £75,000 in prize money last season, and is only seven so should still have her best days ahead of her.

The mares’ races were absolutely made for her; they’re lovely races and there are never many runners in them, so we can keep picking away at some good pots, hopefully.

There’s no need to put her in against geldings at the moment; we’ll keep her to the mares, but if we run short of mares’ races then yes – geldings here we come. She loves soft ground and two and half miles, so I can see her taking on a similar schedule to last year, hopefully with a similar amount of success!