his racing career in National Hunt Flat races, also known as "bumpers", starting with a fourteen furlong event for three-year-olds at Warwick Racecourse on 16 November. Starting the 11/4 favourite against fifteen opponents, he took the lead three furlong from the finish and went clear in the closing stages to win by three and a quarter lengths from Dalavar. On 1 January at Cheltenham Racecourse, The New One followed up by beating fourteen opponents in another NHF race, taking the lead approaching the final furlong and winning by one and three quarter lengths from Chancery. On 14 March, The New One was moved up in class to contest the Grade I Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival. Starting at odds of 12/1 in a field of twenty runners he tracked the leaders, but appeared outpaced in the closing stages and finished sixth, six lengths behind the Willie Mullins-trained Champagne Fever. A month later, The New One appeared at Aintree Racecourse where he was one of nineteen runner for the Grade II Champion Standard Open NH Flat Race. Sam Twiston-Davies restrained the gelding just behind the leaders before overtaking the five-year-old My Tent Or Yours inside the final furlong and winning by one and a quarter lengths. 2012/2013 National Hunt season In the 2012/2013 National Hunt season, The New One was campaigned in Novice Hurdle races. On his debut over obstacles he started 2/7 favourite against eight opponents at Newton Abbot Racecourse on 1 October and won by twenty-six length after leading from the start. Eighteen days later he started favorite for a Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham and won by two and three-quarter lengths from Village Vic, to whom he was conceding five pounds. The New One was moved up in class in January when he contested the Grade II Leamington Novices' Hurdle at Warwick Racecourse. Starting the 1/2 favourite, he took the lead approaching the seventh hurdle and drew away in the closing stages to win by sixteen lengths from the mare Mickie. After the race Nigel Twiston-Davies said; "He really could be the best one we’ve ever had. And he's so relaxed. He ran four months after we put a saddle on him for the first time. As soon as we put tack on him he was going up the gallop as fast as anything else." Two weeks later, in the Classic Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham, The New One