It’s a remarkable 30 years since Nigel Twiston-Davies, one of the leading trainers of modern times, saddled his first winner at the Cheltenham Festival.

That day – March 12^th 1992 – was a very special one for everyone connected with the stable, of course, as it was for plenty of punters from around these parts – now in all likelihood in their 50s, 60s and 70s – who will remember the race as if it were yesterday.

For those of you who are slightly younger, the Carl Llewellyn-ridden Tipping Tim saw off the challenge of Henry Mann and Gambling Royal in the William Hill Handicap Chase, sparking celebrations around Cheltenham and the Cotswolds that lasted well into the night and, in quite a few cases, the following day.

And that breakthrough win was just the start for the now 64-year-old Twiston-Davies who has since sent out a further 16 winners at the showpiece extravaganza, including that never-to-be-forgotten day in 2010 when Imperial Commander stormed home to win the Tote Cheltenham Gold Cup in such magnificent style.

Twiston-Davies will, of course, again be a major player at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, which runs from Tuesday 15^th March to Friday 18^th March, preparing runners for the 15-mile journey to Prestbury Park, the home of jumps racing, from his Guiting Power stable.

And his supporters will believe he is due a winner at National Hunt Racing's flagship event – he’s not had one at the Festival since Blaklion triumphed in the RSA Chase six years ago – although few would bet against him adding to his impressive roll of honour this time around.

“A winner or two would be very nice,” he told The Local Answer, adding, “all the horses that are going have a chance.”

You’d expect nothing less, of course. Twiston-Davies is enjoying another stellar season – at the time of writing he was fifth in the trainers’ championship – and he’s been rubbing shoulders with the biggest and best names in the sport almost from the day he started training in 1981.

He celebrated his first winner the following year and such has been his success that he is a member of the select band of National Hunt trainers to have sent out more than 1,000 winners.

A good number of those winners have been ridden by his sons Sam and Willy, and although Willy has now retired, Sam, who has ridden more than 1,000 winners, is again up among the leading jockeys in the country.

They’ve both ridden winners for their dad at the Festival too and Twiston-Davies senior said: “It’s always special when Sam rides one for us and when Willy did.”

The desire to send out winners clearly burns as brightly as it did all those years ago for Twiston-Davies when the aforementioned Tipping Tim got the bandwagon rolling, so what is it that keeps him going day after day, week after week, and month after month?

“The love of the sport and also what the future holds,” he said.

The immediate future is this year’s Cheltenham Festival, of course, a meeting that it’s fair to say is just that little bit more special than any other.

“It’s the Olympics of the racing calendar,” he continued. “Being local adds to the excitement. It’s the history, I’ve got so many good memories of the racecourse.”

He certainly has and while the aforementioned win by Imperial Commander was the standout – that was one of three winners for him that day – there are so many other names that trip off the tongue, including Arctic Kinsman and The New One, winners respectively of the Spinal Research Supreme Novices Hurdle in 1994 and the Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle in 2013.

Supporters of Twiston-Davies – and there are many of them – will be hoping the good times continue to roll this year and for many years to come.