Joe Tizzard: “Western General should take all the beating here”

Trainer and Coral ambassador Joe Tizzard discusses his five runners at Haydock and Newton Abbot on Saturday.

Haydock 3.15 – The Changing Man

The victory of Triple Trade at Wincanton on Wednesday took us to 50 for the season, which I was aware of beforehand. It is an important milestone for me and the team, although I’m the sort of competitive person who always wants to achieve more, so there’s certainly no easing up now. A target I would really like to pass this season is £1million in prize money, we’re about £100,000 off that at present, so need a good end to the season, and with Aintree and Ayr coming up, we’ve hopefully still got some strong cards to play.

The Changing Man ran a cracker in the Pertemps at Cheltenham, he finished eighth but was beaten only five lengths. He’s been progressive all season, and ran well here at Haydock two runs ago, the long home straight really suits him, Brendan [Powell] can wind him up and he keeps galloping.

This will be his last run over hurdles as we’ll go novice chasing next season, but he should still be competitive here. There might be something lurking down the bottom of the handicap that’s less exposed than him, but not many of these would have finished where he did at Cheltenham.

Newton Abbot 3.25 – Le Ligerien

Le Ligerien is bidding for a four timer, having dotted up at Newbury last time. He’s got form on heavy going, and Freddie [Gingell] will take off seven pounds here, but he’s a straight-forward ride who’s in the form of his life aged 10, so hopefully he can keep the winning run going.

Haydock 3.50 – West Approach