Joe Tizzard: “Dinos Benefit must have a serious chance”

Aintree, Ayr and Punchestown plans

We took The Dutchman, our Grand National runner, down to David Pipe’s yesterday to school as David has a Grand National fence built down there.

He didn’t even bat an eyelid, and went straight down to it and pinged it. So we were really pleased with that.

We weren’t expecting anything different to be honest, but it was a just another box to get ticked.

Harry Cobden schooled him and will ride him in the big race. We are really looking forward to running him. He has 10st 13lbs which is a lovely racing weight.

We are pretty relaxed about the ground. He won on soft ground at Haydock a couple of runs back. I think it’s going to dry out a bit at Aintree and will be good to soft ground come the day.

It’s always beautiful ground around there. We don’t want it too soft. It’s a long way round there on soft ground.

We are planning on hitting Aintree hard, but it’s then ten days until Punchestown so there’s every chance some horses can do both Festivals.

Kilbricken Storm will go straight to Punchestown. He was a little sore after Cheltenham but he’s fine now, so it was helpful to give him a bit longer.

Elegant Escape and Slate House will both definitely run at Aintree, as will Finian’s Oscar, but they have also been entered at Punchestown, and these are horses that could do both.

We’ll see what happens at Aintree first. Finian’s Oscar has been entered in the two and a half mile race on the Thursday at Aintree and then three mile race at Punchestown.

Vision De Flos and Lostintranslation are entered at both Festivals. Vision De Flos is coming back to two miles at Aintree as he travelled seriously well at Cheltenham and probably didn’t get home in the conditions.

Lostintranslation is going the other way and is being stepped up in trip to two and a half miles at Aintree.

We have entered Sizing Codelco in the Betway Bowl just to have a look at it. When Alan Potts was alive he was very much of the view that we should enter wherever we want, as he didn’t want to be in a situation where he’d wished we had a horse in a race.

So we’ve carried on that approach. If there were only five or six in that race he could run.

We have the likes of Sizing Codelco, Sizing Tennessee and West Approach in the Coral Scottish Grand National.

Even if Sizing Codelco runs at Aintree he could well turn up in this race, as he’s a good ground horse and he comes right in the spring. This is his target but he may have a warm up at Aintree first.

We’ve had a quiet time of it with all the racing off lately but it’s been a lovely couple of days and that sun seems to give you a boost. We are looking forward to having a strong next few weeks to finish off the season.

Sunday

2.35 Exeter – Dinos Benefit

Dinos Benefit joined us from Richard Woolacott’s and won really nicely at Chepstow.

This is a decent pot and is not that competitive a handicap. She must have a serious chance in this.

3.10 Exeter – Silverhow

Silverhow has been consistent all season. I think the track will really suit him.

He’s going to be a novice for the next few weeks so we are making the most of that status by running in these novice handicaps which suit him as there are never too many runners.

This is the right race for him and it will likely be his last run of the season.

Monday

Battle of Ideas – Ludlow 

Battle of Ideas is on target for Monday at Ludlow and we are happy to run him.

He schooled lovely on Wednesday. The track will suit him and two miles and five furlongs around there will be perfect.

Joe