Festival Watch: Tizzard holds the aces but Cue Card can come up trumps

Tizzard's novice star Thistlecrack remains the big race favourite, while stable mate Native River closely disputes this after a foot-perfect season its hard to find fault with.

But the sometimes taciturn Tizzard has a twinkle in his eye and a wobble in his voice when he talks about his veteran Cue Card, a horse he has trained since a three-year-old and won a Champion Bumper with seven years ago.

And what a story it would be - the oldest winner of Cheltenham's showpiece race since What a Myth in 1969.

Cue Card returned to winning ways at Ascot this weekend, a remarkable ninth grade one victory, and is now firmly installed behind his younger team-mates as third favourite in the betting for the £575,000 race.

He may be getting on but you can't doubt his speed or his stamina and it's an embarrassment of riches for the Milborne Port handler - a tasty Tizzard trifecta triumvirate.

Last year Cue Card headed to Cheltenham as the hope of the West Country, chasing the £1m Triple Crown bonus after victories in the Betfair Chase and King George VI Chase.

But he fell three out from home, just as jockey Paddy Brennan was warming to the challenge.

Twelve months on and they'd be no more popular winner - despite the growing legion of Thistlecrack fans and loyal supporters of Native River, who has done nothing wrong this season.

"He was as good then as I've ever seen," said Tizzard, a man not prone to hyperbole, after his Ascot triumph.

"He's 11 and you keep on worrying, how long can you keep doing this? But I've been doing this for years with him and he was brilliant again.

"Because he's 11 and he's been so good to us, the day he looks on the wane we'll stop but he's as good as ever in my view.

"He is brilliant and beautiful horse and if you look at last year's Gold Cup, and I'm not taking anything away from the horse that won, he had a fair bit left when he fell and he's just as good now, if not better."

Yanworth stretched his unbeaten run to three with a victory at Wincanton but the Champion Hurdle hope was made to fight all the way to the line in a performance that could hardly be described as eye-catching.

Trainer Alan King described the display as ‘job done' but bookmakers were not impressed, pushing out the seven-year-old to 9-2 from 7-2 for the Festival's first day signature race.

Wearing cheekpieces for the first time, jockey Barry Geraghty had to hold off fast-finishing rivals to secure a one-length victory, a display in stark contrast to Yanworth's impressive victory in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton.

"I would say it was 'job done', and he'll come on for that before Cheltenham and a faster gallop will suit him so much better," said King.

"It has been well documented that Yanworth went into this Cheltenham prep with an interrupted preparation and he was probably only 90 per cent ready on a track which would have been plenty sharp enough for him.

"The first-time cheekpieces sharpened up Yanworth's jumping, and for me he is still very much in the Champion Hurdle mix."

But absence of former winners Faugheen and Annie Power makes for a particularly weak renewal of the Champion Hurdle and while Yanworth's drifting odds now appeal for rock-solid place claims, Geraghty surely won't ride him in March.

Form figures of 11112111 shouldn't lie but this scrambling performance underlines the claims of owner JP McManus's other hope, Buveur D'Air.

Geraghty, who won the Champion Hurdle on Punjabi in 2009 and Jezki in 2014, faces a big choice but surely the preference is for the Nicky Henderson trained six-year old, who is putting his chasing career on hold to return to hurdles, winning impressively at Sandown earlier this month.

Having been available at 50-1 at the turn of the year, canny Henderson sees a gilt-edged chance to snatch a record-breaking sixth win in the race, which again says something about the quality of this year's £400,000 renewal.

And he won't have seen anything that changes his mind this weekend.

Sportsbeat 2017