Nigel Twiston-Davies is convinced The New One will be a player in the Stan James Champion Hurdle granted decent ground.

The eight-year-old had his final public appearance before heading for the Cheltenham showpiece for the third year running when recording back-to-back wins in the Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock on Saturday.

However, the manner of the victory did not impress all the pundits, but Twiston-Davies put that down to the heavy ground.

"He's 100 per cent, really good. It will dry up one day for The New One and you will see him at his sparkling best," said the Naunton handler.

"I was delighted. Reading in the press, they said what a bad race it was and then I looked at his form and everything.

"He's won 722,000 pounds, he's never been beaten more than eight lengths as he was in the Champion Hurdle last year, but yet he's said to be useless!

"He's been quite unbelievable for us - 16 wins out of 23 races.

"We keep saying he doesn't like that sort of ground. He really accelerates on good ground and he's going straight to the Champion now."