Aintree Hurdle: Nine will run in Thursday feature

The New One winning the Neptune Novices' Hurdle

Exciting novice hurdler The New One heads a field of nine for Thursday's Aintree Hurdle.

Trained by Nigel-Twiston Davies and due to be ridden by his son Sam, The New One was last seen when impressively scoring in the Neptune Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, an electric turn of foot the difference between him and the likes of Rule The World and Pont Alexandre. 

Although his form is up to 12 lb shy of the Timeform top-rated in the race, The New One is an early favourite to win the Aintree Hurdle, mostly on account of his potential (his figure has a Timeform 'p' attached to it) and the fact that several of his rivals were disappointing to various degrees at the Cheltenham Festival.

Timeform top-rated Oscar Whisky was probably the biggest disappointment of the whole week at Cheltenham. Normally consistent, he came in for strong support to go off favourite for the World Hurdle but was beaten too far out to blame his ever-so-slightly shaky stamina for three miles. That run was so underwhelming that Barry Geraghty, who has won the last two renewals of the Aintree Hurdle aboard Nicky Henderson's gelding, has deserted him in favour of Grandouet, a faller in the Champion Hurdle. AP McCoy will ride Oscar Whisky for the first time.

Zarkandar, fourth in the Champion, has also has his substandard performance addressed. Now with Ruby Walsh aboard, Zarkandar will wear blinkers in the Aintree Hurdle, a plan sometimes mooted in his early days but not seen as necessary this season prior to his Champion Hurdle performance. Champion trainer Paul Nicholls is also represented by Prospect Wells as he tries to overhaul a near 400,000 deficit with Henderson in this year's championship race.

The other major contenders for the race are Thousand Stars, runner-up to Oscar Whisky in the last two years, and Countrywide Flame, who was one of the few to excel himself at Cheltenham, finishing third in the Champion Hurdle behind Hurricane Fly. Although he's been second in a Cesarewitch on the Flat over two and a quarter miles, this will be Countrywide Flame's first try beyond 17 furlongs over hurdles.

The field is completed by Christmas Hurdle runner-up Raya Star and outsider Saphir River, the latter of which was second in a Grade 1 when trained in France but looks firmly out of his depth here.