Gold Cup on the agenda
Tizzard's Hennessy Gold Cup winner proved he was as tough as old boots with another impressive success which left connections dreaming of Gold Cup glory at Cheltenham
COLIN TIZZARD’S incredible season just keeps getting better.
Just 24 hours after Thistlecrack’s awesome King George success he landed yet another big prize with Native River in the Coral Welsh National.
It was a terrific performance from last month’s Hennessy Gold Cup hero after storming into a clear lead turning for home.
A soaring leap four from home would have rivalled his superstar stablemate and he stayed on strongly to hold off Irish raider Raz De Maree. There was a gaping 15-length gap back to third placed Houblon Des Obeaux.
Tizzard joked: “I’m trying to think what we’re doing next Saturday. It’s getting a bit addictive.”
The punters packed into the Chepstow stands were happy to stay hooked on his smokin’ hot Dorset stable.
And 11-4 favourite Native River did them proud to become the first top weight to triumph in the Chepstow marathon since brilliant-but-flawed Carvill’s Hill 25 years ago.
Tizzard – an ever-closer second to Paul Nicholls in the race to be champion trainer - is becoming a permanent fixture in the winners’ enclosure after top races.
And Native River was slashed to 10-1 for the biggest of them all – the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Thistlecrack remains 5-4 favourite for the Festival thriller.
Tizzard said: “He's a beautiful young horse. Any other season - without the likes of Thistlecrack and Cue Card - he'd be anyone's champion.
“He's only six, after all, and it took me a long time to get the owners to run him. We want him to be around for the next three or four years but you’ve got to run them.
“Joe rode him last week and said he’s on brilliant form. He's a stayer so there's nowhere else he can go apart from the Gold Cup.
“We were actually thinking before we came here today that Native River could go the World Hurdle route. You've got to keep an open mind but I think we'll stay chasing now.”
Native River runs in the yellow, red and purple colours of retired Somerset farmer Garth Broom and his wife Anne.
He said: “Colin had more reasons to run than I had not to run.
“It was much more stressful than the Hennessy and he’s won it much easier than I thought he would. He’s the horse of a lifetime.”
Richard Johnson has struck up a great partnership with Native River. The pair are now unbeaten in three chases and the champion jockey believes he deserves to be in the Gold Cup field.
He said: “It’s very hard for a horse carrying top weight on that ground over that trip.
“I always felt he was waiting for me to ask him. And the more you ask him the more he gives.
“The Gold Cup is always about top-class chasers that stay really well. He's got that in abundance - to win a Welsh National off top weight is a hell of a performance.”
It’s been the happiest of Christmases for the Tizzard clan. And it could be an even better New Year with his golden run showing no signs of coming to an end with the Cheltenham Festival just over two months away.
Philip Hobbs’ Defi Du Seuil cemented his place at the top of the Triumph Hurdle betting with an impressive success in the Grade 1 Finale Hurdle to give Johnson a big-race double.
Pobbles Bay made sure there was a Welsh winner on the card when landing the novices’ handicap chase.
Trainer Evan Williams is already thinking of next year’s Welsh National.
He said: “It would be nice to come back here for the big one. He wants cut in the ground and just doesn’t stop galloping.”
