Nigel Twiston-Davies fired rubber bullets across media bows after saddling a 62 to 1 treble, which included the Grade One Challow Hurdle, at Newbury on Saturday. Some had suggested that the Stow-On-The-Wold trainer's string is out of sorts, with Earth Summit, pulled up in his attempt at a repeat victory in the Coral Welsh National at Chepstow last Monday, unwittingly the chief witness for the prosecution.
But a Challow Hurdle success for King's Road in between wins for Bosuns Mate and Moorish - all three ridden by Carl Llewellyn - dispelled talk of sick notes at the yard.
King's Road, winner of the Punchestown and Aintree bumpers last spring, came to Saturday's race with sound prospects after an excellent staying-on second to Barton at Sandown last time, and accordingly went off the 11 to 10 favourite.
Making the running under Llewellyn, he squandered the advantage when clouting the final flight in the back straight.
But the mistake was a forgiving distance from the finish and, having worked his way back to lead on the run-in - aided by chief victim Rio's King's tendency to hang - King's Road had two lengths to spare at the post, the pair coming home 18 clear.
Poking fun at his interrogators, Twiston-Davies said: "We're distinctly out of form! There will still be writing about being us being out of form.
"We have had five seconds this week and an unlucky second at Uttoxeter today, and we are not in form. I wonder what you have to do to be in form these days."
Turning to the winner, the trainer nominated the Royal & SunAlliance Novice Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival as his seasonal objective. "He will go for the SunAlliance and things like that, and will go chasing next season. He is one to look forward to."
Connections had decided to leave the blinkers off Earth Summit for Chepstow, but the headgear is likely to be reapplied in future, added Twiston-Davies. "It was a winning formula in the past, so it is better to be safe than sorry," he said. "He just didn't like the hustle and bustle of the race."
Twiston-Davies considers the Royal & SunAlliance too sharp for Bosuns Mate, who justified 2 to 1 favouritism by making all the running for the Trevor Salmon Novice Hurdle, and will aim the six-year-old at the three-and-a-quarter-mile Stakis Casinos Handicap Hurdle at the Festival.
"We will try and get him qualified for what used to be the Gold Card, and he will definitely go for the three-miler at Aintree," he revealed.
Such is the form of the yard that Moorish, a 9 to 1 chance, even managed to end a spell of four years and 11 months in the wilderness, fighting back to deny Bold Gait by a head in the concluding Rocking Horse Nursery Hurdle. The County Hurdle at Cheltenham is now a possibility.
Second-season trainer Anna Newton-Smith, who trains 10 at Polegate in Sussex, produced Rightsaidfred to win the £15,000 added Mandarin Handicap Chase. The gelding led in the straight and battled through driving rain to hold Ask Antony, representing the mighty Paul Nicholls yard.
