Joe Tizzard: “These two horses are going there to win!”

They are both fit and ready to run. Every race they run in is a valuable race in its own right and they have to do themselves justice, which is why we took them away to Exeter.

This is a £250k race, and there’s a £1 million bonus at stake so we are not coming here undercooked. These two horses are going there to win. Yes it’s a competitive race but that’s the world they’re in.

As far as we are aware it’s going to be beautiful good to soft racing ground.  Thistlecrack has been in a long time and is certainly showing signs of his old self in his work at home and in the racecourse gallop.

We couldn’t be happier with him but obviously he has to go and do it on the track. It’s not like he can go into a weaker race and boss some lesser horses, he’s taking on a Gold Cup winner, a King George winner and a course specialist.

So it’s not easy. You have to forget the last eighteen months, but when he won the King George he was as impressive if not more impressive than Might Bite and we think there’s still a bit of that horse in there.

Ascot

12.55 – Dinos Benefit

She won nicely around Fontwell last time. She looks a picture at home and yes she’s gone up the handicap a bit but then the horse she beat has come out and run well since too.

So we’re having a crack at this race, I don’t think three miles will be a problem, and I’m excited about running her.

2.05 – Sizing Granite

He’s not really good enough to win this in all honesty but there’s a lot of prize money at stake and he may be able to run into a place and pick some of it up.

He comes good in the spring so we know we’ve got that to look forward to. He ran over two miles last week which was too short so this trip will be more to his liking.  

Sunday

Exeter

12.50 – Princess Midnight

She has a low rating but goes quite nicely at home. It’s a competitive race with 18 runners. She’s only had the one run for us so we’re learning about her all the time.

I think she’s capable of winning off this mark, but whether that will happen in this 18 runner race I’m not so sure, but she will be winning soon.

1.20 – Norse Legend

He won nicely ten days ago. He’ll want the rain that’s forecast tomorrow and I think he’s more than capable of handling the 6lb rise in the handicap

2.50 – Watcombe Heights

He’s back over fences but he won with a bit in hand over hurdles last time. He jumps his fences ever so well and we couldn’t be happier with him to be honest. He goes there in good form and should run a big race.

Uttoxeter

1.10 – Quiz Master

He ran really well last time and got beaten by another of our horses Buckthorn Timothy. He’s a horse who does need his first run. He’s working really well and we’re looking forward to running him.

2.10 – Sandy Beach

He’s kind of lost his way a bit through last season. He’s better than that and he’s dropped to a very workable mark but I think he may just need his first run to get his brain in gear.

Post-race Update on Champions Club Horse – Battle of Ideas

Battle of Ideas has come out of the race fine. If he hadn’t have made those mistakes he’d have been right in amongst it. We are not far off winning with him and we’ll run again in a couple of weeks in the same sort of race.

They were just novice-like mistakes and hopefully the handicapper will drop us a couple of pounds and we can go close next time.

It’s been a good week. We’ve had another three winners and going into a big weekend like this one it’s nice to have the horses all running well.

Joe