Twiston-Davies has no complaints about Al Dancer rating for Betfair mission

Ante-post favourite Al Dancer will seek to become the third novice from the Nigel Twiston-Davies yard to land the Betfair Hurdle in the last six runnings of the race and heads to Newbury with his trainer untroubled by a rating much higher than those exploited by his previous winners.

Those two horses, Ballyandy and Splash Of Ginge, could once again line up in a £155,000 showpiece they won off marks of 135 and 134. That puts into context the task faced by the sponsor's 4-1 market leader, who advanced to a BHA mark of 141 after powering to an 11-length Cheltenham handicap success in December.

More encouragingly, Kalashnikov last year stormed to a wide-margin triumph off 141 prior to finishing an agonisingly close second in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, in which two other recent Betfair Hurdle winners – My Tent Or Yours and Get Me Out Of Here – also took runner-up honours.

Novices once again dominate the big-race betting, with the Paul Nicholls-trained Getaway Trump Betfair's second favourite at 9-2 followed by Monsieur Lecoq at 7-1.

Nigel Twiston-Davies will be seeking to continue his excellent record in the Betfair HurdleCredit: Edward Whitaker

Assessing his lead candidate, Twiston-Davies said: "He's an improving sort and has exactly the same profile as our other two winners at the same stage of their careers. His rating is higher than our last two winners won off but I do think he's on a fair mark.

"Once he won at Cheltenham in December we decided to put him away. There was no point over-racing him as we knew we wanted to go to the Betfair Hurdle before the festival."

Conditions at Newbury were on Monday described as soft with more rain forecast, which should not trouble Al Dancer, given he has won on both good and soft ground.

Twiston-Davies added: "We just don't know enough about him yet to say what his best ground would be. He seems to cope with anything, though. He's a good horse and that's what good horses do.

"If the ground is very soft Splash Of Ginge will run at Newbury and if we do get that sort of ground Ballyandy will probably run as well. Ballyandy has come down the handicap but he looked like he was coming back when he won last time."

Al Dancer is also no bigger than 12-1 for the Sky Bet-sponsored Supreme, in which his owner Dai Walters also has 5-1 market leader Angels Breath, who could run in Newbury's novice hurdle on Saturday.

"It's dream time at the moment," said Walters. "Al Dancer hasn't done a thing wrong so far but he's coming to his first big test and we'll start to know how good he is from Saturday.

"I was quite impressed with him at Cheltenham, where he didn't put a foot wrong. He's a big, strong horse and a real Nigel type of horse."

Newbury's card also includes the Grade 2 Betfair Exchange Chase, reopened on Monday, and the Denman Chase, in which last season's winner and subsequent Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Native River will take on his King George VI Chase conqueror Clan Des Obeaux.

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