Joe Tizzard Saturday runners blog & final Cheltenham build-up thoughts

In his latest exclusive Coral blog, leading trainer Joe Tizzard previews his Saturday rides at Sandown and Hereford and gives his final pre-Cheltenham Festival 2025 thoughts.

There’s really good prize money up for grabs here, and there’s a suitably competitive line up as a result, but we got this fellow qualified for this and it’s been a long term plan. Some of his form is right up there with the best on offer here, his Ascot third particularly has him close to Belliano, so he could be a an each-way price.

I’ve put the cheekpieces on him here, he schooled well in blinkers at home earlier this week, but I think cheekpieces will do the job just as well, and hopefully they will just make him settle better, as he didn't really drop his head as much as you'd want to see last time. A well run race should also help him too, but this is mega competitive.

This horse went up ten pounds for winning at Wincanton last time, which I thought was absolutely bonkers, but let's hope the handicapper is right. This is a good opportunity for him so we have to run, and the course and trip should suit. I hope he will go very close.

Coral Racing Club members can read more about this horse on the CRC hub, but for everyone else, he has come out of his Lingfield race well. That was over two miles on heavy ground, and we do think he will improve for going further here and also for better ground. I hope he can run a big race for the club.

I give the handicapper plenty of stick, so I should also give him credit where it's due, and I do think he's dropped Triple Trade to a mark where he could get his head in front again. The course and the trip should suit him, and while he has just been finding one or two too good recently, he definitely has a race like this in him. Whether it is today or not, we'll have to wait and see.

We had our final pre-Cheltenham schooling session on Wednesday, it’s probably the most stressful one we have all year, as you don’t want any mishaps this close to the Festival, but you want to give them that final workout so there can be no excuses come the race. Fortunately it all went to plan, and I couldn’t be happier with how the horses are. 

 I’m not going into next week feeling any great pressure, even though in The Changing Man we have a fancied runner [in the Ultima]. Obviously we’d love to have a winner, but at this stage my job is pretty much done, the horses are fit, well, and look great, and so what will be now will be

It looks as if the ground will be good to soft at the start of the meeting, and then might dry out a little bit, but that will be fine for most of mine, and anyway, it is spring, we shouldn’t be expecting heavy winter ground at this time of the year. We certainly won’t be using the going as an excuse. 

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