Joe Tizzard “very excited about” Vision Des Flos today

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Joe talks us through the Tizzard stable’s Sunday chances at Chepstow

2.15 Chepstow – Elegant Escape

Elegant Escape has done identical work and schooling to Finian’s Oscar in the build up to his return today.

He’s a lovely big novice, and he’s filled out hugely over the summer. Last season he won a couple of novice hurdles, one around Chepstow and one around Ascot. We then could have then gone to a small track and run under a double penalty on a week-day but we thought he’d learn more by running in the big races at Cheltenham and Aintree, so we threw him in the deep end.

He’s a decent chasing prospect, one of our best in fact. He won his point to point and he’s schooled really nicely, and he’ll love the Chepstow track.

It’s a very competitive race with only 5lbs covering the field on official ratings. Our horse will improve for chasing, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he improves for the run too, even though he is fit to run. He could finish fourth beaten a few lengths and you’d still be delighted with the run. It’s that kind of race.

2.50 Chepstow – Vision Des Flos

Vision De Flos is an exciting horse.  He won the Land Rover Bumper at Punchestown last season, and then joined us.

The previous owners were toying with running him in a point to point, and it’s clear to us that he’s done a lot of schooling in the past because he’s been a natural jumper since day one.

We were tempted to go for the 2 mile novice on Saturday but they didn’t split the race, so we have thrown him in the deep end a little bit today. That said he was bought to be in this sort of race and everything he’s done at home has been very encouraging.

Two and a half miles is a great starting point for him and he’s a horse I’m very excited about.

3.25 Chepstow – Theatrical Star

Theatrical Star is a great old boy. He finds it hard to win now but he is so consistent and has been placed in a few of these veteran chases.

He’s not getting any younger and although he has a chance there are normally one or two that are better handicapped than him.

4.35 Chepstow – Sizing Granite and Ultragold

We finally got to the bottom of Sizing Granite at Punchestown last year. When the Alan Potts horses came to us last year he had the biggest reputation of the lot, and it was great to see him bounce back to form in Ireland.

His coat looks absolutely superb at the moment which it didn’t this time last year, so I’m hoping he’s in the same vein of form as he was at the end of the season and that he can progress again. He’s at the top of the weights, and this would put him into graded company if he can run well.

We were running out of options of where to run Ultragold really. We are keen to take him back to Aintree over the big fences, in either the Becher Chase or the Grand Sefton, so we’ve just decided to run him while the ground is suitable. He never fails to disappoint. It was remarkable run in the Topham. He’s a progressive chap.

5.10 Chepstow – Shillingsworth

Shillingsworth was quite green in his bumper last year. We have been schooling him up for hurdles but we schooled him the other day and he was having a good look so we felt that it would do him good to have another run in a bumper. He wants more of a trip than in a bumper but he should benefit from the run to take the greenness out of him and sharpen him up.

5.40 Chepstow – The Russian Doyen

The Russian Doyen is a horse we like. We paid decent money for him. He works nicely. We ran out of time to run him last season. He had a racecourse gallop at Wincanton and ran well but then we couldn’t get him on the track because the ground went for him. So he had the advantage of being in all last season. He’s a nice horse and we’re expecting a big run from him.

Joe

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