Joe Tizzard Cheltenham Friday blog: 'There's very little between this pair'

Coral presents the latest Joe Tizzard blog, with the leading trainer previewing his runners for day one of Cheltenham on Friday.

The horses have been running well through the summer and early autumn, but this is the time the season steps up a gear, so hopefully we can continue to keep them fit and well and going nicely. In an ideal world we wouldn’t have run two in the same race, but this is a valuable contest, the ground will be ideal for them, and both horses are ready to run. 

There is very little between them on official ratings, Triple Trade is just a couple of pounds higher, and that reflects how they are at home. It wasn’t an easy choice for Brendan [Powell] to make, I wouldn’t read too much into him choosing Scarface, as I say, there is very little between them, and Harry [Cobden] rides plenty for us.

Both have been off for a similar time, so will both come on for the run, but both have run well at Cheltenham before. It’s a wide open race, and I’d hope both have each-way chances at least.

We bought this fellow at the Coral Gold Cup sale at Newbury last year, off the back of his point-to-point win. He’s a lovely type, who we’ve given plenty of time to, and that’s really helped him grow into his frame. He has been off since that point-to-point win the best part of a year ago, so I do expect him to improve for this run. 

This might seem a big ask, running him first time up at Cheltenham, but with just eight runners, it looks a lovely race to get him started, and it will tell us plenty about him. He ticks all the boxes at home so I’m confident he won’t disgrace himself. 

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