The New One closes on Neptune favouritism

BY RACING POST STAFF 7:09 PM 12 JAN 2013

THE NEW ONE was slashed for the Cheltenham Festival’s Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle after recording a dominant victory in the Grade 2 Leamington Novices’ Hurdle on Saturday.

The Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained five-year-old is now as short as 6-1 favourite with William Hill for the race, and more generally is 7-1 second-favourite behind Pont Alexandre. The New One was 14-1 before his crushing 16-length victory at Warwick, after which his trainer said: “He does more at home than he’s done there.”That was the most consequential Festival mover on a day that brought several notable betting shifts. Also on the move was Paul Nicholl’s Rocky Creek, who landed a novice chase at Warwick by 15 lengths and was cut to a general 12-1 (and no bigger than the 14s available with Ladbrokes) for the RSA Chase, having been as big as 20-1 beforehand.Donald McCain and Jonjo O’Neill both had on show solid Albert Bartlett contenders, with McCain’s Wetherby winner Up And Gocut to 16-1 (from 20) by BetVictor and O’Neill’s Cloudy Copperintroduced at 14-1 by several firms after a Kempton victory. In Ireland the Willie Mullins-trained Daikali was the big mover of the day, cut to as short as 8-1 but generally 12-1 (from 16) for the Triumph Hurdle after a thumping 28-length Grade 3 win at Punchestown. Mullins said: “He’s nice and progressive, he gallops and stays and I don’t know if he’ll have another run before Cheltenham, but he’s certainly on the shortlist for the Festival.”

fonte: RacingPost