The Twiston-Davies team have their eye on Winter Million riches for Wayward Lad scorer Master Chewy, who is poised to continue his climb up the novice chasing ranks at Lingfield next weekend.
The seven-year-old failed to find the scoresheet when highly tried over hurdles last season, but has really found his feet since switching to the larger obstacles this term.
An impressive winner on his chasing bow, he then had to settle for second when bumping into top chasing prospect Djelo and an in-form Elixir De Nutz in his next two starts, but got back to winning ways in style at Kempton over Christmas when winning the Grade Two Wayward Lad Novices’ Chase with ease.
That victory has seen the assessor bump Master Chewy’s rating up 10lb to 150 and, delighted with the progress he is making, connections will now head to Lingfield’s Winter Million Festival for either further Graded action in the Lightning Novices’ Chase or a shot at the £50,000 Godstone Handicap Chase on the final day of the three-day meeting.
“He’s come out of Kempton very well,” said Willy Twiston-Davies, assistant to his father Nigel.
“He’s going to have dual entries at Lingfield next weekend in the Lightning on Friday and the big handicap on the Sunday, so we will look at them and if racing is off we will look on to the future.
“We are very excited by him and he’s now up to 150 so he has proven he is one of the top novices in this country anyway.
“It’s good prize money at Lingfield and it’s a meeting that needs supporting so hopefully we will have a few runners over the two (jumps) days.”
Watch the Winter Million Festival live on Sky Sports Racing from Friday January 19.