Joe Tizzard blog: ‘Elixir De Nutz is fresh and well and ready for this’

Coral presents the latest Joe Tizzard blog, with his runners preview for Sandown on Saturday and reflections on the season.

Nutz gave us our biggest day so far when winning the rescheduled Clarence House Chase at Cheltenham in January. It was my first Grade One success as a trainer, and also Fred’s [Gingell] first as a jockey, so it was a magical day. We may have needed a bit of luck, but that’s jump racing, the horse deserved it, and it can’t be taken away from us.

He was an outsider then, and he will be here, but he’s in great form, he’s beaten a few of these in the past, and we saved him for the better ground here rather than going to Aintree, so if he runs to his best, I can seen him picking up some decent prize money.

Elixir De Nutz odds: 33/1

Bourbali is a bonny little horse who I think the handicapper has got hold of. He’s so consistent he just never seems to get dropped a few pounds, but at least he got that win over fences at Kempton earlier in the season.

He’s won around Sandown before, and he jumps well, so really it’s whether he can won off this mark or not, and I fear he can run well but might just be up against it in terms of winning this.

Bourbali odds: 20/1

We’re going to fall just short of the £1 million in prize money mark for the season, and that’s down to the quieter summer we had last year. I’ll keep about 15 summer jumpers going this time around, and hopefully that can get us rolling in terms of prize money before the season steps up a gear in the autumn.

Overall I’ve been happy with how things have gone. The constant wet weather has given the season a stop-start feel to it, everyone was in the same boat, but there were times when we just couldn’t get any momentum going, with meetings lost and the going more testing than ideal, so hopefully we’ll all get a drier time next winter. 

As mentioned above, the highlight of the season was Elixir De Nutz winning the Clarence House Chase at Cheltenham, to give us a first Grade One win since I took the licence. Fred riding it made it extra special, and I was delighted for owner Terry Warner, who has been such a long time supporter of the yard. 

On that note, I’d like to thank all our owners for their support, we have a great group, and all the team here appreciate that.