Colin Tizzard confident of Cheltenham success despite Thistlecrack blow

Two days after the loss of Thistlecrack, the Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite, with a season-ending injury, Colin Tizzard was able to count his blessings and look forward on Thursday as he discussed what will still be the strongest team he has sent to the Festival meeting.

“There’s an awful amount of luck in it,” Tizzard said, as he paraded Native River and Cue Card, the new favourite and second-favourite for the Gold Cup, at his west country stable. “A lot of the top trainers have top agents paying good money for horses, and they’re good trainers with the best jockeys, and they haven’t got Grade One winners.

“Why’s that? It’s got to be luck. There’s an awful lot of luck, from a horse turning out to be a 140 or 150 horse, and then there’s the odd one in 200 that goes on to be a 170 horse, so we’ve got lucky.”

Tizzard is not, as yet, a regular in the winner’s enclosure at Cheltenham in March. Thistlecrack, who took the World (now Stayers’) Hurdle, was Tizzard’s only winner at the Festival last season, his first since Cue Card’s victory in the 2013 Ryanair Chase, and only the fifth of his career at the Festival. Willie Mullins had seven victories at the meeting last season alone and eight the year before that.

In recent seasons, though, Tizzard has steadily built his training operation into one of the most successful and the closest challenger to Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson for pre-eminence in National Hunt. Even without Thistlecrack he looks to have a stranglehold on this year’s Gold Cup and his team for the showpiece event is backed up by promising novices such as Finian’s Oscar and West Approach, leading contenders for the Neptune Novice Hurdle and Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle respectively.

Native River, winner of the Hennessy Gold Cup and Welsh National, is currently top-priced at 3-1 for the Gold Cup, while Cue Card, who was Tizzard’s first Festival winner in the 2010 Bumper, is 7-2. Their trainer, though, cannot separate them.

“No way I would want one horse to win more than the other,” the trainer said. “I want them both to run their races, come back sound and may the best horse win. If they were both 11-year-olds, you’d have Cue Card down [as favourite], but I think people can hardly believe an 11-year-old should be the favourite for the Gold Cup.

“He started off as a Champion Bumper horse and he’s still winning Grade Ones at 11, so he’s done everything bar win a Gold Cup. It was his own making really that he fell [when still in with a chance] last year but there’s everything to play for. We actually thought his chance was going or gone but he’s got equally as good a chance this year as last year.

“If Native River wins, I’ll feel the same. We’ve had him since he was a four-year-old, and he’s got all the qualities. For me the Gold Cup is the biggest race of the season, the ultimate test of a horse. It’s not necessarily won by the fastest horse. It’s the one that on the day cannot make mistakes and [can] grind it out.”

Finian’s Oscar, a Grade One winner already this year in the Tolworth Hurdle, is a 9-2 chance for the Neptune, having joined the stable as a recruit from Ireland earlier in the season to run in the colours of Alan Potts. “Alan rang me in August to offer me 15 horses when Colm Murphy said he was retiring, and since then he’s bought Fox Norton, Finian’s Oscar and [top French chaser] Alary,” Tizzard said.

“What he wants is runners at Cheltenham. Finian’s Oscar is a brilliant young horse and he doesn’t stop.

“When he has horses around him, he’s very competitive, and his jumping is fast and fluent. When he went to the front a mile out at Exeter [last time out] he was messing about a bit, but he’s not going to be in front a mile out in the Neptune, he’ll be able to sit third or fourth all the way around.”

The arrival of Potts, one of National Hunt’s big spenders, as an owner a few months ago was a significant moment for Tizzard, who will hope to deliver Festival winners to match the investment.

Alary, who had a heavy fall last time out after a disappointing run on his British debut at Haydock, remains a contender for the Ryanair Chase at the Festival.

“He looked as though he would be a three-and-a-half miler in heavy ground,” Tizzard said, “but I think he’s a two-and-a-half miler. I saw him on the gallops this morning and he’s beautiful now. When he first came he wasn’t as healthy as he could have been.

“I don’t think it was French bugs, I think he caught ours and that’s why he flattened out first time. I think he’s a live player. He’s a man of a horse, we jumped him this week and he never worried about the fall, he arched his back and landed 15 feet the other side.”

Others to note from the stable next month could include West Approach, who could yet switch from the Albert Bartlett to take on seasoned hurdlers in the Stayers’ Hurdle, while several handicappers from the Potts string, including Sizing Codelco, who finished fourth at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, have been kept fresh with the Festival in mind.

“We’ve stopped with his handicappers purposely to go to Cheltenham,” Tizzard said. “There’s six or eight of them rated in the 140s and 150s, we gave them a break because we want our best chances at Cheltenham

“Sizing Codelco finished behind [subsequent Grade One winner] Top Notch at level weights in a graduation chase earlier in the season. We ran him over too far a trip last time, now we’re dropping back to two five, and he’s a big, strong stayer. He’s going well at the moment and looks well in his coat, he’d have a nice chance [in the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Plate].”

Greg Wood’s tips for Friday

Exeter

2.10 Little Miss Poet 2.45 Shaama Grise 3.15 Wild West Wind 3.50 Abracadabra Sivola 4.25 Any Drama 4.55 Obistar 5.25 Goonjim

Lingfield Park

2.20 The Ginger Berry 2.55 Casablanca 3.25 Auric Goldfinger (nap) 4.00 Honiara (nb) 4.35 Bartholomew J 5.05 Street Jazz

Warwick

2.00 Coo Star Sivola 2.30 Early Du Lemo 3.05 Knight Ofthe Realm 3.35 Templehills 4.10 Act Now 4.45 Allchilledout 5.15 Dame Rose

Wolverhampton

5.45 Pick Of Any 6.15 Tred Softly 6.45 Dandilion 7.15 Gilgamesh 7.45 Lord Cooper 8.15 Lostock