COTSWOLD jockey Sam Twiston-Davies rode three winners as the National Hunt season hit its stride with the two-day Showcase Meeting opening Cheltenham’s 2014/15 programme.

In the Neptune Investment Novices’ Hurdle which launched the Friday programme, Twiston-Davies found a willing partner in Vicente.

The Paul Nicholls-trained grey was one of the first under pressure but kept responding to his jockey’s urgings and claimed a notable scalp in last year’s Festival winner Present View, who was using the hurdle race as a prep for the Paddy Power Gold Cup.

Twiston-Davies completed a quick double – this time for his Naunton-based dad Nigel – when Sybarite powered up the hill to record a 10-1 success in the Pertemps Qualifier.

On the Saturday card, the father-and-son combination was also triumphant when Splash Of Ginge (5-4) raced to a nine-length victory in the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars Novices' Chase.

It could have been even better for young Twiston-Davies as his mount Calipto seemed to have the measure of last season’s Triumph Hurdle scorer Tiger Roll in the Masterson Holdings Hurdle until making a mistake at the final flight.

Guiting Power trainer Jonjo O’Neill landed his customary double on Saturday when Johns Spirit scored a impressive victory in the Marie Curie Cancer Care Handicap Chase – as he had done in the same race 12 months ago.

O'Neill had earlier been on the scoreboard with In The Rough (9-4) in the Lewis Badges Novices' Hurdle.

In the enforced injury absence of stable jockey Tony McCoy, Richie McLernon partnered Johns Spirit and Barry Geraghty came in for the ride on In The Rough.

The feature race of the weekend, Cheltenham's Showcase Trophy, was won for the fourth year in a row by Somerset trainer Philip Hobbs.

His Balthazar King had taken this prize in the three previous years, but this time it was Roalco De Farges (8-1) who proved too strong for the opposition on his first race for 175 days.

The winner’s next target could be the Hennessy at Newbury.

Ulzana's Raid (6-1) put up a sterling weight-carrying performance under the steadier of 11st 12lb to lift the Vanilla Photobooks Handicap Hurdle for Barbury Castle trainer Alan King and his Swindon-based jockey Wayne Hutchinson.