Joe Tizzard: “Lostintranslation is one of our best novices”
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There’s no getting away from it – a few of our horses ran a bit flat over the New Year period, so we’ve given them all their flu jabs, and effectively had a short mid-season break.
You can’t work the horses hard after they’ve had the jabs so we’ve just let them all freshen up.
We’ve kept them all ticking over and the horses look really good. Now we’re ready to push on again.
We could do with the ground just getting a bit nicer. When horses aren’t quite 100% this really heavy ground exaggerates it hugely.
You can get away with a slight underperformance on better ground but on this heavy ground, any chinks in a horse’s armour get fully exposed.
You just have to be able to deal with quiet periods as a trainer as it happens to all of us.
You only have to look at Philip Hobbs who has had a really quiet time for the last month.
Paul Nicholls always has a quiet January as he does his flu jabs then and tries to get them right for the spring.
You just have to take those slow periods on the chin, and you have to be strong enough to keep going as normal and sticking to the system, and then they come right.
We are hoping that the horses have had their quiet spell and that it’s better to have it now than in March or April when the Festivals are on.
Hopefully, they’ll come back into form now and we’ll be flying by the time Cheltenham and Aintree come along.
SATURDAY
He’s put two solid runs together. He won at Chepstow and then a good run up in class at Exeter last time. This looks the right race for him and he’ll like it around Ascot. It’s nice to give Jamie a chance to ride him. He’s a really good rider and he works hard for us. Flaming Charmer has a nice chance.
We think 115 is a fair mark for him. He’s a big horse and we think he really needed the run at Taunton ten days ago. He seems to have sharpened right up for that run.
We are sticking him back on track quickly but he’s the type to get sharper for a run than it takes too much out of him. He should be competitive off this type of mark.
He had a small issue which meant he couldn’t run at Ascot over Christmas but he’s well over that. He has an entry in the Betfair Hurdle which is certainly a target for him, but this is a nice Grade 2 and it fits ideally.
He’s a very exciting horse. We haven’t run him on this type of ground but he’s a big boy and he should be able to cope with it.
His last two runs at Newbury have been excellent, and he’s a really nice horse. He’s one of our best novices. He’ll run in this and then go to the Betfair Hurdle.
He’s running over fences for the first time for us, but he has plenty of experience chasing. I think he was one of the first horses to run below par for us when he ran at Cheltenham last time out.
He seems in really good form and he’s better handicapped over fences. There is a big race in him I have no doubt.
We’ve been schooling him all season over fences and Dad has been saying he’s a chaser, he’s a chaser, so we’re running him in this as it’s a good pot to go for.
He’s been off for a while. He’s an older horse and he’ll need the run, there are no two ways about it. It’s a senior’s hurdle so it’s ideal.
He ran for the first time this season eleven days ago and needed the run. He will hopefully run better in this and isn’t badly handicapped.
SUNDAY
He was a bit unlucky to suffer from some seconditis but he won well last time and hopefully, that has got his confidence back. Fingers crossed, he can go forward from that. He is potentially well handicapped and we are expecting a big run from him.
He has had some decent enough form at the start of last season but he’s lost his way a bit. He has had sore shins in the Autumn but they’ve been treated and he seems in good form. The idea was to have a couple of hurdle runs to get his confidence back. I think Harry will get on well with him
Joe
