Joe Tizzard: “Slate House is ready to unleash his potential”

14.25 Cheltenham – Slate House

It’s a really competitive race and we’re well aware of that, but with Slate House we just believe he’s ready to unleash his potential.

He was visually very impressive last time, and he proved that he can handle the ground that day. He’s in as good a form and whilst it’s as ultra-competitive a race as you can find, we couldn’t be happier with our horse.

Sunday runners

12.45 Cheltenham – Valhalla

We’re running him in this boys’ (conditionals) race as he had a nasty fall last time out at Wetherby when he was travelling very nicely. This looks a lovely opportunity for him really but he doesn’t win very often and we are just trying to build his confidence back up. 

12.55 Fontwell – Battle of Ideas

We’ve definitely picked the right race to go for. Just the four rivals to beat. Battle of Ideas is as good as we’ve ever had him. He’s been working really nicely. We had his wind done, we cured his ulcers and we’ve given him time since his last run, so we couldn’t really be happier with him. The ground shouldn’t be a problem and that 2m5f round there will be ideal. I think he’ll enjoy himself.

I keep saying it, but we haven’t seen the best of this horse yet. At some stage soon he’s going to show us that he’s well handicapped, and hopefully that will be Sunday. 

On Chris Hughes schooling Battle of Ideas last week

Chris can ride. There’s no two ways about it. We let him school last year as a bit of fun, but this year we did it properly for him as we knew he was capable.

He’s a brave young man because he hasn’t sat on a horse for a while and hasn’t jumped since last year. But he enjoyed it and he didn’t do a thing wrong. It was really nice to see and great for a lad in his position to be able to come and do it and enjoy it so much.

Joe