'The Champion Hurdle is the one that got away – I’m sure he would have won it'

One of the biggest cliches about jump racing is that a slice of its enduring appeal is derived from people’s familiarity with the horses. Year after year they come back for more, so the truism goes – unlike those evanescent here-today-gone-tomorrow Flat performers, with whom you can rarely enjoy more than a brief fling.

As such, The New One, who returns to Cheltenham yet again today to shoulder topweight in the Unibet Greatwood Hurdle, could offer an object lesson. Surely one of the most popular horses in training – yet for all that, an equine paradox, at times a hero curiously unsung – the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained stalwart has been around for what seems like eons, to the extent that it comes almost as a surprise to learn he is still only a nine-year-old.

Despite his longevity, The New One is not yet the old one, though we’ve certainly seen plenty of him since his racecourse debut six years ago when he justified favouritism in a Warwick bumper under adoring pilot Sam Twiston-Davies.