NIGEL Twiston-Davies and Carl Llewellyn are yet again heading into the Festival with one of the most powerful groups of horses anywhere in the country.

The duo formed one of the most potent partnerships in racing when Llewellyn rode as the Naunton trainer's stable jockey for nearly 20 years.

After a three-year spell training on his own, Llewellyn returned to Grange Hill Farm as Twiston-Davies' business partner last summer and it was like he had never been away.

"Not much had changed and, while the place was bigger, the team was much the same," he said.

"A lot of the same staff were still here and it was very easy to get back into it."

Llewellyn has ridden seven winners at the Festival, the most recent aboard Fundamentalist for Twiston-Davies in the Neptune Investment Management Novices' Hurdle six years ago.

Paddy Brennan now has the pleasure of partnering the yard's best horses, with Imperial Commander and Khyber Kim heading the all-star cast in the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup and Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle respectively.

"It's great to be going to Cheltenham with proper chances in good races," said Llewellyn. "We've got plenty of other runners with bits of chances, but it's nice to have them in the Gold Cup and the Champion Hurdle because we've never really had anything at less than 10-1 before.

"Young Hustler was third at 33-1 and was regarded as an outsider, which he was, and I don't think we've ever had a chance like this year."

Imperial Commander looks the horse most likely to break the Kauto Star-Denman stranglehold in the Gold Cup, having nearly beaten Kauto Star at Haydock before flopping at Kempton over Christmas.

"He nearly fell at the second fence at Kempton after getting unsighted and then made a bad mistake at the fourth, so he ran no race at all," said Llewellyn.

"You can't give any horse that sort of head start, let alone Kauto Star, and you've just got to put a line through that run.

"If Kauto Star runs at his best or near to his best in the Gold Cup, he'll win.

"Having said that, if Imperial Commander had jumped the third-last better at Haydock, he would have beaten him, so you can't rule him out.

"I've got no worries about him getting the trip on good ground."

Khyber Kim has been a revelation this season and goes into the Champion Hurdle as one of the few horses with an unblemished record.

"If other horses were unbeaten and in fantastic form, then maybe you'd think he'd have to improve again," said Llewellyn.

"But the way it's gone, he's the one that's improving and they've got question marks about them, so that must give him a hell of a chance.

"He likes Cheltenham, he'll like the fast pace and to come from where he did at Cheltenham last time shows he's got some turn of foot."

Mahogany Blaze faces a massive task in attempting to dethrone Master Minded in the Seasons Holidays Queen Mother Champion Chase.

If the hot favourite has an off-day, however, Llewellyn hopes Mahogany Blaze will be there to pick up the pieces in an otherwise open-looking race.

Baccalaureate proved that shocks can happen at Cheltenham when scoring at 100-1 on Festival Trials Day in January.

He has a choice of races at the Festival and Llewellyn warned about discounting him lightly, whichever he goes for.

"We don't know if it was one-off, but he did it at 100-1 and in that respect he deserves to go," he said. "Nigel's had 50-1 winners at the Festival before, so it does happen."

Southoftheborder has been kept fresh for the Festival, while soft ground would bring out of the best in Little Josh.

Llewellyn tipped Tramantano as another horse to watch out for, probably in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase, in which he was fourth last year.

"He's better fresh and we've kept him back for it – he's got a proper chance," said Llewellyn. "He's got loads of ability and if the ground's good I can see him running a big race."