Colin Tizzard stable tour pre Cheltenham Festival

Native River

We have had Native River since he was a four-year-old and he is lovely young pretender now. He has a long raking stride - longer than any horse we have got here. I suppose [I thought he was a Gold Cup candidate] since the last race last when he won the Grade One at Aintree. Richard Johnson gave him a hell of a ride. Up until then he was a big baby and all the jockeys were having to push him on from start to finish and I was more concerned that we were going to sour him really by making him do it. Then he came out this year, won the Hennessy, won the Welsh National and we’ve seen the classier side to him at Newbury last week. I think he’s got a bit more to him than we saw at Newbury, even in that race and in the Welsh National he showed a spurt where he went six lengths clears but we don’t have to go on six or eight out, I think now we can sit on that and save that spurt until two out. He’s a good horse and we know that he can gallop up the Cheltenham hill, he’s got everything. He’s got all that it takes to be a Gold Cup horse whether he wins it or not. He’s only seven and he’s going the right way. 

Cue Card

I’ll never hear anything against him, he’s been a fantastic horse for us. He’s won a Champion Bumper, he’s won the Ryanair and he was running a hell of a race last year and people said that might be his only chance of winning a Gold Cup but here we are after last week and he looked as though he was as good as he’d ever been and he got a Racing Post mark as good as any horse this season. Does he stay? I’m sure he does. He’s got it all there. It’s just a testament to the horse. I’m so proud of him. Like this morning - it was only 10 days ago that he raced – when he was cantering, he was coming up with his head in his chest, loving every second of it as though he was doing it for the first season. He didn’t run to his best form at Kempton, whether that was because he took Thistlecrack on out in the country I don’t know but the fact was that he was lame behind the next day. Whether that was coming on we don’t know. They don’t all run to their best form, they’re not machines, on any given day. We’re going there as first and second favourites but that doesn’t mean they’re going to win it, they’ve got to bring their best game to the races on that day. Cue Card has done everything bar winning a Gold Cup and we have everything to play for. We thought his chance might have gone, but he has an equally good chance this year as he had last year. 

Finian’s Oscar

We never thought when we bought him he’d be favourite for the Neptune. This one came highly recommended by a lot of different people. Luckily we had Alan Potts buy it. He’s progressed probably above our expectations we’d have to say. Because he came out of the point-to-point field we thought two and a half miles would be his trip but if you look back through the Neptune there have been Champion Hurdle winners win that race, go back the next year to contest the Champion Hurdle. Most of the horses are entered twice. I’d say if we had to make a decision this morning we’d go Neptune but we will leave it for a little bit longer and wait for someone to tell us he’s in the wrong race. Even his last race at Exeter when he frightened everyone away, when he was in the bunch, second or third, he was very competitive, jumping fast and slick. He went to the front and he was sloppy, waiting for the rest to come really. He never even broke a sweat, stood there after the race as though he’d just trotted across, wasn’t even breathing hard. He’s a good horse and whichever race he goes in - these are championship races, make one mistake and you’re gone – but he’d have as good a chance as any.

Alary

He got up fine [from his fall at Exeter]. When he came over from France with a reputation as being a three two or three and a half miler. He was down in one of our other yards because we don’t want to bring in any bugs but I think he picked up some of our bugs; he had a little bit of that no doubt. He ran an awful lot better at Exeter but whether he is a three and a half miler….I think he’s a two and a half miler, on the gallops he’s as fast as anything. He looks beautiful at the moment. I would say at this time that we might well have a look at the Ryanair because there’s no reason not to. In a minute, he’s going to be a good horse I’ve got no doubt of that, whether he’s acclimatised enough yet I don’t know but he’s rated 162 so we might just go to the Ryanair. 

Fox Norton

In an ideal world you wouldn’t run two in one race but I’m sure we’ll run the horses on the merits, what we think is best for them. I’m sure we’ll treat every horse as an individual. He was trying to give Altior 5lbs and had had a month standing in his box after he cut his tendon, he jumped into himself at Cheltenham in December. I didn’t think he jumped very well the last circuit and he was stiff behind for a week after the race. There’s two things, he’d had a month off and he wasn’t quite right after the race. He’s a good horse in his own right and as long as we have a clear run with him the next three weeks, he’s going to take a lot of beating.  Douvan he does look a machine. He is good horse and we shouldn't be afraid of one. It will be left until the five-day stage I would say. 

Morello Royale

She came second over three miles at Newbury last week and looked like she was going to win at the last, travelled supremely well, It’s the first time we’ve taken on geldings with her because we’ve been trying to keep her against her own sex. She ran a hell of a race, she’s in the Coral Cup, she’d have a chance.

Royal Vacation

He started off on 127 at the beginning of the year and we were chuffed when he was going to be second to Might Bite. He beat some good horses at Kempton, then he came out at Cheltenham over two and a half miles and won by 15 or 20 lengths. He does nothing wrong. Paddy (Brennan) said you have got to go for the RSA and not the National Hunt Chase. What he has got in his favour is that we can run him right on the pace knowing he will stay, as I think he will stay four miles. He won't have to sit in a bunch with the other novices and get involved in the jumping issues which will occur in a RSA. He can go right from the start really positive and that gives him a chance."

Sizing Codelco

He came second to Top Notch in a graduation chase in December, only beaten half a length. Rated 140, Top Notch is probably rated 156 now. I think we ran him over the wrong trip last time. You must never be afraid of these handicap races at the Cheltenham Festival. We’re not afraid of getting beat, that’s not an issue. On a given day any horse can improve 5lbs and if they’re a handicapper, that gives them a hell of a chance. 

Thistlecrack

He’s still in his box. It’s not very much at all. It’s minute. I was devastated when we scanned him and it was that. Twenty four hours of telling everyone and dealing with it was more than I really wanted to do. I’ve got over that now and look on the good side and we’ve won a King George this year, a World Hurdle last year. We haven’t broke him, I’m sure he’ll be back next year. It’s only small, as small as it gets. He’s still a good horse and he will be again. We’ve had a lot of horses over the years that are as good as they’ve ever been at 11 and 12. 

West Approach

It was his best run so far, they’ve put him up 157 or 159; he’s a highly rated novice now. He had a ride from Ruby Walsh that was either absolutely brilliant or slightly out of his ground, he said he wished he’d been five lengths closer all the time. The horse bunny hopped the first two fences. He was back last and he still finished not very far behind the World Hurdle horses. John and Heather Snook, they never shied away from…..my joke with them is that they look at the programme book and find the most difficult races going for the most money anyway. There is a chance he could still go, especially if the favourite came out, he’d have a real good chance. In the novice [Albert Bartlett] there are horses coming through there improving all the time, we don’t know there’s not a superstar just coming up through the ranks but we think we know pretty well what’s in the World Hurdle. It’s not done and dusted where he’s going yet. I’m sure there is [improvement to come]. He’s a half-brother to Thistlecrack, he’s nowhere near as big and nowhere near as long but he has got that same engine. It was about this age with Thistlecrack that he started finding his true form and this one’s doing the same. I actually thought, we worked him on Tuesday, the headgirl was riding him and I said ‘you went too fast’ but she didn’t think she was and I said ‘the ones in behind you couldn’t keep up’. He’s a good horse now and what race we go in, you should almost think it should be the novice but we’ll look at it. If something happened to one or two of the top ones in the World Hurdle, I’m sure we’d look at that.