The day Nigel Twiston-Davies won the Gold Cup - and was still giving his son a rollocking less than an hour later

Sam Twiston-Davies is looking forward to a fantastic book of rides at the Cheltenham Festival as he attempts to continue what looks like being his best season in more than a decade – but it will take a lot to top the day of his first festival winner.

Twiston-Davies was just 17 when he rode Baby Run to victory in the Foxhunter Chase in 2010 and he has recalled the rollicking he received from his dad Nigel before the race for daring to contemplate changing tactics, even as the family ought to have been basking in the glory of Imperial Commander’s Gold Cup triumph.

Now 32, Twiston-Davies was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday’s newspaper in which he discusses being inspired by returning to the family operation after his spell with Paul Nicholls turned sour, his growing status as an elder statesman of the weighing room and bouts of family fisticuffs.

It didn’t quite go that far when Twiston-Davies talked tactics with his dad ahead of the 2010 Foxhunter, although it wasn’t a smooth conversation either.

Baby Run's win came just one race after Imperial Commander's Gold Cup triumphCredit: Edward Whitaker

He said: "I remember walking into the paddock and telling Dad that, yes, I knew Baby Run always used to prick his ears and jump off in front, but there were loads of others who wanted to make the running that day, so I'd give him more of a normal kind of ride.

"He just started swearing at me: 'No you f***ing won't, don't you dare miss the break, you do what you always do on him.'

"This was a man who had just won the Gold Cup, not even an hour ago, yet he was still fired up enough to give me grief about the Foxhunter. That's what he's always been like.”

Nigel’s insistence that the horse made the running proved well founded.

"Anyway, the tape went and Baby Run was like a sprinter out of the stalls, went straight to the front and made all to win by five lengths,” added Sam. “It was unforgettable but it still seems mad that that was Dad's favourite race of the day."

Read more from Sam Twiston-Davies in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday. Click here to sign up.

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