Tizzard couple Cue Card and Thistlecrack thriving ahead of Punchestown Festival

“He was also in lovely form the day after the Cheltenham Gold Cup and bounced out of that race and schooled nicely before Aintree. He was in as good as form as he had been all season then and while I didn’t think he would be as impressive as he was in Liverpool, he sure ran a massive race. I think he would have won the Gold Cup.

“I’m more than happy with the horse and he’s never shied away from anything. The Bibby Financial Services Ireland Punchestown Gold Cup could be a serious race and take nothing away from Don Cossack and Vautour, who have both stood up to everything. We’ll find out who the best is at Punchestown.

“I’m having a lot of fun with (Don Cossack’s trainer) Gordon Elliott at the moment and it’s good for racing and may the best horse win.”

Thistlecrack bidding for rare treble

The Tizzards also oversee one of the best long-distance hurdlers of recent years in Thistlecrack, who is on course for the Grade 1 World Series Champion Stayers Hurdle on Thursday, April 28th.

This eight-year-old won the World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and followed up at Aintree in classy fashion, so is now heading to Punchestown to try and complete a rare treble.

Joe Tizzard added: “Thistlecrack seems to improve every time that we run him. He’s come out of Aintree lovely and we’ve still not got to the bottom of him – we don’t know just how good he is. He seems a step ahead of them over hurdles at the moment.

“Punchestown is a good meeting with serious prize money and this year it fits in well after Aintree with three weeks between them. Every year we’ve started to bring more and better horses over and we’ve kind of saved our best horses like Thistlecrack to do the three – Cheltenham, Aintree and then Punchestown.”

Thistlecrack is a strong odds-on 1/4 favourite to land the World Series Champion Stayers Hurdle and complete a perfect season.

Related

There’s plenty more to read ahead of the Punchestown Festival on Coral’s special page.