Joe Tizzard: “This is the strongest team we’ve ever sent to the Festival”

The latest insight from the Tizzard stables ahead ofCheltenham

We were going to run War Lord in the EBF Final at Sandown, itwould have been a nice opportunity for him off a competitive mark, but that’sgone, so we’ll look for something else for him. And we might have onerunner at Taunton on Monday, but really it’s all about Cheltenham now. 

The build up – fingers-crossed! – to next week is goingreally well, we had Jonjo [O’Neill Jr] and Harry [Cobden] in schooling onThursday, and Robbie [Power] came in this morning [Friday] to have a sit on hisrides, so the mood here is good.

This is the strongest team we’ve taken to a Festival, andwe’ve certainly not had such strength in depth with our novices.

In the past we’ve gone into the week fancying one or two, butthis year you can make cases for five or six of ours. We’ve also had severalbig priced winners here, so we’re not afraid to run them, however competitivethe races may look.

In general, the horses are in good form, it was nice to bag acouple of winners at Wincanton in the week, the Festival horses are well, andof course they have lots of ability. 

Obviously it was disappointing to lose Native River for theseason, but as we stand right now, all the others have had a clear run to thispoint, and as I say, in terms of our novices, I think we’ve got some of thestrongest, certainly on this side of the Irish Sea. 

From my point of view, it’s very different heading into aFestival as assistant trainer compared to when I was riding. Then, it wasall about staying injury free, and looking to get on as many with chances aspossible. 

Now, I have much more responsibility, Dad [Colin] and I spenda lot of time discussing the horses, their targets, their preparation. 

The mood in the yard is slightly different in these last fewdays, with everyone just that little bit more focused, but I do think Dad findsit easier now, when he has Kim [sister] and I to bounce things off, and to takesome of the burden from him.

We had one of our owners down here to watch the schoolingthis week, and he was getting a little bit edgy, he admitted he was feeling thenerves, but that’s good, as I always say if this next week doesn’t get to you alittle bit, doesn’t matter to you, give you some nervous excitement, then youshouldn’t be doing this!

In these final few days, it’s important that we don’t changeanything, we keep the Cheltenham runners ticking over as normal, as we wouldgoing into any race. 

The hard work has been done, we’ve got them fit and well, wedon’t mess with the system that works the rest of the time. We’ve also gotall the jockey bookings sorted, bar one in the boys’ race [Martin PipeConditionals’], as we’re waiting to see if Jonjo Jr will be available.

We’ll look at all the runners each day next week, but right now, the one horse I’m really looking forward to is Fiddlerontheroof, in the opening Supreme Novices’. 

He looks a million dollars, he was a Grade 1 winner last time, the likely slow ground will suit him, and although it’s sure to be an ultra-competitive race, I think he’s got a great chance. And I know everyone says it, but I would just love to get that first winner on the board at the first attempt!

Joe