Joe Tizzard Cheltenham Festival 2025 day one blog

Cheltenham 2025 kicks off on March 11 and Joe Tizzard has shared his latest exclusive blog with Coral for day one of the festival, previewing his two runners.

It’s always an exciting moment when a declaration for a Cheltenham Festival race is finally made, we build up to it for months and months, and to get a runner there is an achievement in itself. We’ve said for a few weeks now we’d be taking a small but hopefully select team to Cheltenham this year, and that’s how day one looks.

The Changing Man is favourite for the Ultima, which tells you what sort of chance he should have, and clearly it’s great for us that we have a horse like him. He ran really well in three big handicaps this season, finishing second each time, and I always took the view that whilst it was disappointing not to win one of them, we couldn't be disappointed with how he ran, because each time he put in a really big performance.

We then went to Ascot for the Reynoldstown, and although the favourite fell early on that day, jumping is the name of the game and this fellow really did deserve to get his head in front. The handicapper didn't overreact to that win, and put him up just two pounds, which I think was very fair. It means we come here off a lovely racing weight, he will love this ground, and I hope he has as good a chance as the betting says he does.

Obviously he faces a mightily competitive field, it's a full line-up of 24, and no Cheltenham handicap is ever easy to win, but this fellow has been running consistently well all year, and there's no reason to think he won't again on Tuesday. Whether or not he is good enough, we'll find out, but I wouldn't swap him for any of his rivals.

Our second runner is a much bigger price then The Changing Man, but as a yard we've had a few big priced winners here over the years, and have never been afraid of running one that the market considers an outsider. Rock My Way only joined us in January, and we ran him pretty quickly after that, when he finished second at Doncaster. 

He looks much better now than he did then, he's really come into his coat and seems on really good terms with himself. We've schooled him in blinkers and they really seemed to sharpen him up, so he'll have them on her

He does need to prove he gets this three miles six furlongs trip, but on this ground I think he will. And while he does need a lifetime best to win this, it’s the right race for him, the new conditions of the race mean Brendan [Powell] can ride him, and we had no hesitation in coming here. 

Even without Lossiemouth, this is a Champion Hurdle to savour.  State Man is the reigning champion, while Brighterdaysahead, having beaten him twice this season, comes here as the best hurdler in Ireland.  Even so, I am very much in the Constitution Hill camp. It was well documented that things just did not go to plan for this horse last year, but in Nicky Henderson, he was in the best possible hands to come back to his best, and I think that's what we'll see on Tuesday.

Nicky has been so open with everyone, he didn't have to work him publicly again but he did, and bar that one last hurdle scare last time, he's looked brilliant on the track this season. Without doubt he's one of the best horses I've seen in the last 20 years and I hope, and think, he will prove it again here.

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