As a trainer he also enjoyed success at the big meeting on his trips down from Penrith with the likes of Master Tern and Danny Connors.

And he promises to make his presence felt even more this year, now that he is located within a stone’s throw of Prestbury Park at Jackdaws Castle.

O’Neill added more firepower to his strong Cheltenham Festival team as Giocomo took the Chatteris Fen Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle at Huntingdon.

The trainer, whose Miros and Keen Leader are leading fancies for the novice hurdles at next month’s big meeting, has the JCB Triumph Hurdle in mind for his four-year-old, who formed the second leg of a 28-1 double for him and stable-jockey Liam Cooper.

Giocomo, a 22,000gns buy off the Flat last autumn, stepped up on his two previous efforts over hurdles as he got the better of a sustained duel with With A Twist to take this €17,500-added contest by a length at 7-2.

The 8-11 favourite Vol Solitaire, a 16-1 chance for the Triumph with William Hill beforehand, was outpaced and could manage no better than third, another three and a half lengths away.

Giocomo earned a 25-1 quote for the Cheltenham race from Victor Chandler after his success in a race Kribensis used as a stepping-stone to victory in the big four-year-old contest in 1989.

O’Neill said from his Jackdaws Castle base: ‘‘He is in the Triumph and we will have to see how he comes out of this race but the owners would like to have a runner.’’

The trainer’s wife Jacqui, who braved the cold and wet conditions at Huntingdon, quipped: ‘‘It makes Jackdaws seem like Barbados here!

‘‘But Giocomo enjoyed the ground today it is fairly testing out there.’’

William Hill pushed Vol Solitare’s Triumph odds out to 20-1. Trainer Paul Nicholls assistant Jeremy Young said: ‘‘He wasn’t suited by the slow pace and we will see about Cheltenham.’’

Cooper had initiated the stable’s double with a masterful ride to coax a win out of Rith Dubh in the Tote Bookmakers Novices’ Handicap Chase.