Commander to have just three runs Nigel Twiston-Davies and Paddy Brennan believe Imperial Commander's chief rivals have something to prove as the jumps season begins in earnest. This year's totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup winner will have the first of a three-race campaign in the Betfair Chase at Haydock on November 20, before he takes in the William Hill King George VI Chase at Kempton and a return to the Cotswolds next March. At Haydock last November, Imperial Commander went within a nose of depriving Kauto Star of his third victory in the Grade One event and trainer Twiston-Davies feels it is the ideal starting point again. Paul Nicholls is likely to plunge What A Friend into that particular event, while Kauto Star heads to Down Royal and Denman - a seven-length runner-up to Imperial Commander in the 2010 Gold Cup - is set to defend his Hennessy title at Newbury. "Kauto Star and Denman do have questions to answer this season. Obviously they are amazingly good horses and you have got to respect them, but we're looking forward to having another go," said Twiston-Davies, who was hosting a press morning at his Gloucestershire stables. "He definitely is more forward than he was last year. He's only going to have the three runs - the Betfair, the King George and then the Gold Cup - so we'll make sure he's fit for the big targets. "Let's hope he is improving. It seems funny when he is nine, rising 10, but he did come to me very late. "He was very late starting so why can't he be late finishing? 18 races is not much for a Gold Cup winner." Both Twiston-Davies and jockey Brennan defend the gelding's record at Kempton, where he has finished sixth and fifth behind Kauto Star in his two tries in the King George. "He had a really hard race at Haydock and Imperial Commander is more like Denman, in that he takes his time," said Brennan. "But he went round Kempton in a gallop three weeks before Cheltenham and he gave me a feel like no horse has ever done. "Kauto Star and Denman are great for racing but I know what I've got and in my opinion he's the best we've got in the country at the moment. "Denman and Kauto Star will be there again this season and Denman is probably one in the Gold Cup who is very dangerous. "Kauto Star is not getting any younger. There are always other ones coming through, like What A Friend and Planet Of Sound, but the one I look at is Imperial Commander, I don't need to worry about everyone else." On the thorny issue of Sunbury, Twiston-Davies added: "Last year he got blinded at the second fence and came from miles back, jumping really well, but knew he had lost at the second. "The year before we discovered he had a lung infection. He was the only one who took the race to Kauto Star but he was obviously wrong and came back full of muck. It's absolute nonsense that he can't go right-handed." There may not be a return to Aintree either, where Imperial Commander unseated Brennan when looking beaten in the totesport Bowl, just a few weeks after his Gold Cup triumph. "I like them to run and I wanted him to go there but it was a disaster," admitted the trainer. "It's hard to see a Gold Cup winner do that, it was a bit sad, so let's finish on the right note."
