Joe Tizzard Boxing Day runners blog: 'He can be there or thereabouts'

Coral presents its latest Joe Tizzard blog, with the trainer previewing his four runners at Wincanton on Boxing Day and his Ladbrokes King George thoughts.

It wasn’t the original plan to run this horse here, but when I saw the original entries I knew it was going to be a small field, and so it proved, with just five declared. We’ve put the blinkers back on him, he didn’t travel at Exeter last time, so they should sharpen him up again.

He likes small fields as he can dictate the running much easier, and while it’s a tight looking little contest, I think he can be there or thereabouts.

We run two in this handicap chase, and there’s not much between them, either at home or on official ratings. Pedley Wood is paying the price for being consistent last year, but he will come on for his run at Ffos Las last month.

Hatos has won here when trained by Anthony Honeyball, and he’s run well in his two starts for us, and he can certainly be competitive again, as can Pedley Wood. This is the level the pair are operating at, nothing more, nothing less than that.

Ryder’s Rock runs in dad’s [Colin} colours, so it was nice to get a win out of her for him at Newton Abbot back in September. She’s run OK since then, but again, she’s running at the level she is for a reason, and if she can give Freddie [Gingell] a good spin round, it will be job done.

It’s a quiet Boxing Day for us, the horses are running well, but we don’t have the runners for the big Kempton meeting as we have in the past. We know all about winning the Ladbrokes King George, and looking at this year’s race, it’s an absolute cracker. 

The tactics with Corbetts Cross and Spillane’s Tower will be interesting, whether one makes the pace for the other or not, but the one I think could take the beating is Il Est Francais, if, and it is an if, he is the form he was when winning the Kauto Star at this meeting last year. He looked electric that day, and in that form, he’d be the one I’d love to be on if I was still riding.

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