Talking Horses: Colin Tizzard guide to Cheltenham Festival runners
Stoicism is a useful – perhaps essential – trait for any racehorse trainer, but few carry it off quite as well as Colin Tizzard, who opened his yard on Wednesday morning for his annual pre-Cheltenham Festival media day.
Tizzard drew a blank from 21 runners at last year’s meeting and returned home empty-handed in 2014 and 2015 too, but was fairly convincing when he said that he does not feel any extra pressure ahead of this year’s meeting.
“I don’t feel too much pressure at Cheltenham,” Tizzard said. “If you get them there in good form, there’s hardly any hard luck stories and you find out how good they are. I don’t get disappointed, as long as we get there on a level plane where we’ve done all our work then I’ll be glad for anything we get. It’s one place I don’t get disappointed. I’m just so happy to be there with lovely horses.”
Do all you can, in other words, while always remembering that there is only so much you can do. And find the positives where you can, such as Native River’s good third in last year’s Gold Cup, and Fox Norton’s close second in the Champion Chase. In fact, it could be argued that Tizzard’s runners did not really perform below expectation in 2017 as just three of his 21 runners set off at single-figure odds and not one of them as favourite. Compare that with Nicky Henderson, who had 13 runners at a single-figure price in his 37-strong team, or 35% as opposed to Tizzard’s 14%.
It was odds-on going into last year’s Festival that Tizzard would have either one winner or none, and it turned out to be none. And, on paper at least, he has the same sort of squad this time around: plenty of solid contenders but, in the absence of Thistlecrack for the second season running, none that are comfortably the best in their race on form and ratings.
The three big-name horses are Native River, the second-favourite for the Gold Cup, as well as Cue Card, who could join Native River in the showpiece or divert instead to the Ryanair, and Fox Norton, who seems most likely to run in the Ryanair “unless Altior scares everyone off in the Champion Chase and then we might take him on.”
Tizzard has several decent chances in the novice events as well, though, and discussed their prospects yesterday as well.
Finian’s Oscar (JLT Novice Chase): “Finian’s Oscar was pulled up in the Cleeve Hurdle and he was making a noise, so we’ve had his palate done. We schooled him this morning and I’d say he would wear blinkers and go for the JLT Novice Chase. His jumping all season has been suspect, but that’s what we’re likely to do. When he ran, most of our horses weren’t running well, but we’ve come through that.”
White Moon (Ballymore Novice Hurdle/Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle): “He was sore behind when he got beat at Sandown [in December] and had to have a month off. He’s absolutely fine, he schooled this morning and is a lovely, big chasing type. He’ll go for the Ballymore or the Albert Bartlett, but I think he is more of a three-miler.”
Slate House (Supreme Novice Hurdle): “We’ll go to the Supreme with him. He is a lovely horse who will make a lovely chaser next season. We haven’t raced him much in the last two months as we are targeting Cheltenham, Aintree and perhaps Punchestown. We want to win the big races so we’ll start at Cheltenham in the Supreme, then we’ll go for Aintree and then see if he’s still ready for Punchestown. He needs good spring ground.”
Elegant Escape (RSA Chase or National Hunt Chase): “Elegant Escape is a lovely young horse and we’re leaning towards the RSA Chase with him, but if a top amateur came up, we might think about the National Hunt Chase.”
The obvious highlight of Thursday’s action is the Listed Lady Protectress Mares’ Chase at Huntingdon, a tight race where five of the six runners go to post with a decent chance. Preference is for the front-running Rene’s Girl (4.05), who was in charge from a long way out at Doncaster last month, while Delegate (3.55) and Foolaad (3.45) stand out on the cards at Sedgefield and Southwell respectively.
Sedgefield 1.40 Aaron Lad 2.10 Steps And Stairs 2.45 Bal De Rio 3.20 Kilronan Castle 3.55 Delegate 4.30 Derrynane 5.05 Roxyfet
Huntingdon 1.50 Red Admirable 2.20 World Premier 2.55 Sir Egbert 3.30 Alberta 4.05 Rene's Girl (nap) 4.40 Kincora Fort
5.15 Voie Dans Voie
Southwell 2.00 Kommander Kirkup 2.35 Silchester 3.10 Ray Purchase 3.45 Foolaad (nb) 4.20 Clayton Hall 4.55 Shine Baby Shine
Chelmsford City 5.55 Kyllukey 6.30 Freebe Rocks 7.00 Very Honest 7.30 Danzan 8.00 Thaqaffa 8.30 Dark Freedom 9.00 Win Lose Draw