Joe Tizzard previews his stable’s day one Cheltenham Festival runners

‘This race has been the plan all season.’

It’s obviously going to be a very different Cheltenham Festival this year.

We’re certainly going to have less runners than usual, because firstly our novice hurdlers in particular just haven’t done enough yet this season to earn their place here, and secondly, with owners unable to attend, there won’t be the more social runners going there, and most trainers would say the same thing.

Cheltenham 13:55 – Eldorado Allen

Our first runner of the week is a big priced one, Eldorado Allen in the Arkle.

It wasn’t a straightforward decision to run here rather than in the Grand Annual, but we had a long discussion with the owners, and ultimately felt this was the better option.  He’s still a novice so this smaller field should suit him better than a bigger field handicap, he’ll love this first day softer ground, and with only six declared, there’s potentially some decent prize money up for grabs.

We know Shishkin is a class act, and Allmankind is a Grade 1 winner also, and they’ll be hard to beat, but we’ve had big priced winners at the Festival before, so you never know what might happen.

Cheltenham 15:05 – Champion Hurdle

This looks a really strong renewal of the Champion Hurdle, with Honeysuckle better than ever at Leopardstown last time, and Goshen getting back to form at Wincanton, and that’s without looking at some of the bigger priced ones, but I wouldn’t be giving up on Epatante.