Joe Tizzard: “Robbie’s confidence in West Approach has encouraged me”

The latest insight on Saturday’s runners from the Tizzard stables

12.40 Newbury – Reserve Tank

We are stepping him up to 2m7f in this. That’s mainly because he’d have been giving Champ and co weight in the Grade 2 on Friday with his penalty if we’d run there. So this is the easier option. Timing-wise this is a good time to get a run into him.

13.15 Newbury – Molineaux

He’s had a run, where he needed the blow. This 2m4f is about right for him. We are expecting him to be competitive. He should go well.

15.00 Newbury – Elegant Escape, Robinsfirth, Mister Malarky & West Approach

We feel all four horses will be suited by the race. Last year the race fell apart a bit because of the ground, but this year we are back to the maximum field.

I wouldn’t say there is a stand out horse in the race but it is very competitive indeed. I don’t think there’s a Gold Cup winner in the field.

Elegant Escape

Elegant Escape is the class horse in the race but he’s obviously carrying a lot of weight. He’s got the blinkers on which will obviously help. He hits flat patches in his races and then he stays on, but hopefully the blinkers will help him to keep travelling and then his stamina will kick in.

He was second last year off a lower mark but he’s a very good horse on his day. He’s a Coral Welsh National winner after all, and he deserves to be top weight because he’s shown the best form of all of these. It’s just difficult to win off top weight.

Robinsfirth

Robinsfirth is very classy on his day but has been hard to train. He’s had his wind tweaked and he’s had an away day, but I would have just loved to have got a run into him before this.

Mister Malarky

Mister Malarky was a really progressive novice last season and is a second season chaser coming into this. He’s just coming in off a really bad run last time at Ascot. Apart from the fact he blew hard afterwards we haven’t really got to the bottom of it.

He’ll have the sheepskins on for the first time, which lit him up schooling. He could be the one but it’s never great coming in off a bad run. He was certainly going the right way last season and he was the one we were talking about for this race all summer.

West Approach

Robbie had the choice really and he chose West Approach. He just felt that this horse has shown bits of form that are well superior to his mark, and he’s 4lbs well in off the back of his Cheltenham win. He likes him and seems to get the best out of him, and his confidence in him has encouraged me to think he has a big chance.

When I was asking Robbie who he wanted to ride he said “I like the horse, I know he can be a bit careful but they can get away with that around Newbury with those nice long straights. If I get to within 10 lengths of them turning in I think I’ll take a lot of beating”.

The Ladbrokes Trophy is a great race. It has a big history and we’ve been lucky enough to win it a couple of times, and we’d like to win it again, hence we’ve lined four horses up for it.

Joe