Joe Tizzard: “The Grand National is the big target for Ultragold this season.”

He possibly would be better off racing in a lesser race carrying more weight, but he’s earned the right to have a tilt at a race like this.

It’s Tom’s minimum weight obviously but he’s happy to do it and he wanted to ride the horse as he’s got on well with him.

4.20 – Ultragold and Nativegetaway

Ultragold is amazing as he’s won two Tophams at Aintree and yet he’s still a novice over hurdles.

The Grand National is his big target this season so we are playing around over hurdles to protect his handicap mark over fences. He’s a 148 rated chaser running over hurdles so it’s well worth a try.

Nativegetaway is a new horse that we bought early summer, that had placed form in Irish point to points, and we wanted to get a run into him. We’ll find out a bit more about him in this race.

It’s as well to run in this small field at Cheltenham, and give the syndicate that own him a great day out at Cheltenham, as it is running him at Chepstow where they’ve had 70 odd entries for the novice hurdle there next week.

5.30 – Jaytrack Parkhomes & Master Debonair

Both of these horses have been schooled over hurdles and that is the likely route we’ll be taking.

However this is a nice pot, and they are both four-year-olds, so it felt like a good starting point.

Jaytrack Parkhomes is quite highly strung so we felt it would be good to have a run on the flat first time up.

And with Master Debonair we’ll be seeing if he’s good enough to take the Champion Bumper route or see whether he’s better off going hurdling. Both are good horses and won their bumpers first time out.

Sunday – Wincanton

4.30 – Mick Thonic

He loves the fast ground and ran a great second at Wincanton last time out. He just came up a good one last time. We have Angus on him again claiming 10lbs.

This is an ideal race as he’s not easy to win with but he likes this ground so we need to run him while the races are bit easier.

Thistlecrack

Thistlecrack is all systems go for Wetherby and the Charlie Hall Chase, but it’s ground dependent. We are getting a bit windy and we need some rain.

There are a couple of forecasts that give us some hope. However physically and preparation-wise everything has gone brilliantly for Thistlecrack, and he’ll be entered and if the ground is good enough he’ll be there.

Joe