Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
FOX IN THE HUNT
Norton cut to 8-1 for Champion Chase
FOX NORTON is a best-priced 8-1 to better his Queen Mother Champion Chase second of last season after impressing on his comeback at Cheltenham yesterday.
The Colin Tizzardtrainee, a diminishing head behind Special Tiara in the Grade 1 two-miler last March, surged to an eightlength margin over Cloudy Dream in the Shloer Chase – a race he won in 2016 – with the reigning title-holder a neck back in third.
“No horse could have beaten them any better,” said Tizzard. “He’s a very good two-miler.”
Tizzard (below) will now send Fox Norton, whose owner Alan Potts passed away last week, to Sandown for the Betfair Tingle Creek Chase on December 9, but he hasn’t ruled out a move up to three miles for the King George VI Chase at Kempton 17 days later.
Jessica Harrington’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Sizing John will represent the Potts family in the King George if he makes a successful reappearance in the Betfair Chase at Haydock on Saturday.
“If Sizing John wins at Haydock, we won’t be going to the King George, but if he doesn’t, it does open the gate a bit,” added Tizzard, whose seven-year-old is as short as 8-1 for the Boxing Day feature.
“These good two-milers, they stay any trip, I think he’d do anything.
“We shouldn’t pigeon-hole horses. My mother always said, ‘A good man can always change his mind!’”