As with many professional horse trainers, Nigel Twiston-Davies moved from riding horses to training them, where he’s become best known for his success in National Hunt races. His training started in 1981, sealing his first win one year later when Last Of The Foxes won at Hereford Racecourse. Since that point, Nigel Twiston-Davies has trained over 1,000 winners in National Hunt races, with part of the credit going to his thriving stable at Grange Hill Farm in Naunton, Gloucestershire.
Primary success at Grange Hill Farm came from their immense skill for winning at Cheltenham Festival, where they currently hold a record of seventeen wins at the famous four-day event. The first came in the 1992 William Hill Handicap Chase, where Tipping Tim kicked off their run of wins at Cheltenham, with it being followed up by a win for Galestrom in the 1993 Neptune Investment Management Novices Hurdle and Young Hustler in the 1993 RSA Chase, as well as a win for Arctic Kinsman in the 1994 Spinal Research Supreme Novices Hurdle.
Following a four-year gap, the Nigel Twiston-Davies racing team got back to winning ways at Cheltenham Festival, winning the 1998 Triumph Hurdle with Upgrade, the 2000 Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle with Rubhahunish, the 2004 Neptune Investment Management Novices Hurdle with Fundamentalist, and the 2008 Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle with Ballyfitz. Multiple wins in the festival came in 2009 with wins for Imperial Commander in the Ryanair Chase and Tricky Trickster in the National Hunt Chase, before 2010 saw wins for Imperial Commander in the Totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup, Baby Run in the Christie’s Foxhunter Chase Challenge Cup, and Pidgeon Island in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase Handicap.
The Nigel Twiston-Davies racing team have taken seven wins at Cheltenham Festival since 2010 alone, also winning the 2013 Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle with The New One, the 2013 Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Handicap Chase with Same Difference, the 2016 Weatherbys Champion Bumper with Ballyandy, and the 2016 RSA Chase with Blaklion.
Both of Nigel Twiston-Davies’ sons are involved in horse racing, with Sam Twiston-Davies impressively winning the 2010 Christie’s Foxhunter Chase at Cheltenham on Baby Run at the age of seventeen, where he went on to spend a lot of his time working at Manor Farm Stables under Paul Nicholls. As for Willy Twiston-Davies, he holds the record for the youngest jockey to have won the Aintree Foxhunter Chase, winning the race at the age of sixteen. His sons are joined by a further twenty-two permanent members of staff to run the spectacular facilities at Grange Hill Farm, which has its own on-site vet, equine pool, schooling, stables, and one of the UK’s most successful jumping yards.