NIGEL TWISTON-DAVIES believes as his Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Imperial Commander will have no worries with the Aintree track in this afternoon’s totesport Bowl.

The nine-year-old is the star attraction on day one of the Aintree Festival after hsi superb victory in the blue riband at Prestbury Park last month. That was his sixth course victory at Cheltenham from seven career wins under Rules.

There is no doubt Twiston-Davies is best at Cheltenham but his trainer feels that his second in the Betfair Chase at Haydock, where he was only beaten a nose by Kauto Star, proves he is effective at other venues.

He faces just four rivals in today’s 3m1f Grade One contest and Twiston-Davies said: “We’re very much looking forward to it. We finished one Festival off with three winners on the final day and they all run on the first day of the next Festival, so it will be interesting,” said Twiston-Davies.

“Imperial Commander is in very good form. The owners did take a bit of persuading to let him run again but we’re ready to go and we’ll see what happens. People will say he does most of his winning at Cheltenham but that doesn’t worry me at all.

“There wasn’t much wrong with his run at Haydock earlier in the season and Haydock is quite similar to Aintree in many ways. The only reason he’s done most of his winning at Cheltenham is because that’s where he runs most. It’s not a bad place to be winning.”

Twiston-Davies will also run his two other Cheltenham Festival winners this afternoon with Pigeon Island set to line-up in the Red Rum Handicap Chase while Baby Run will go over the Grand National fences in the John Smith’s Fox Hunters’ Chase.