Native River Gold Cup winner is retired after National run
NATIVE River, one of the most popular horses in training, has been retired after being pulled up in the Coral Welsh Grand National at Chepstow.
The 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner won 11 of his 24 chase starts, amassing over £1million in prizemoney for his owners, Garth and Anne Broom, and giving the Colin Tizzard yard some of their greatest days to date.
Tizzard said: “He is an amazing horse. The first time we ran him, he finished third in a bumper and he won the next time (at Stratford). The next year he went novice chasing and he just progressed.
“We thought we had a good horse on our hands when we went to Newcastle and he won the French Furze Novices’ Hurdle on his third run for us.
“He was never the fastest, but then we had a real field day with him when he won the Hennessy, the Denman and the Welsh National - we didn’t hold him back.
“We just thought today, he didn’t like the ground or didn’t really want to be doing it. And we thought that the time before, so it was the right time to do it.
“We had an era when we had Cue Card, Thistlecrack and Native River, and Native River and Cue Card won over £1.3million each. If ever Joe (Tizzard) is going to be able to find one like that, it will be amazing.
“It is the end of the big three, really.” He went on: “He is a lovely boy and retiring him is the right and proper thing to do.
“When you talk about the big races, the biggest is the Cheltenham Gold Cup and he won it - so finding the next one is not going to be easy. There are a lot of people trying to find those big, strong staying chasers. He has been fantastic to us.”
Joe Tizzard, assistant to his father, said: “He’s been an absolute legend for us all. His wins in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Hennessy and the Coral Welsh Grand National were all massive, memorable days for Garth and Anne and the whole team.
“He’s a lovely character, and has been a special horse to train. He will now enjoy a happy and well-deserved retirement.”
Winner of the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in 2016, he went on to land the Coral Welsh National the same season, before finishing a fine third to Sizing John in the 2017 Gold Cup.
But it was the following year that he tasted glory at Cheltenham, powering up the hill to beat Might Bite by four and a half lengths.
Garth Broom paid tribute to “a horse of a lifetime”.
He said: “The writing was on the wall a long way out, but we thought we’d give him a couple of runs this season.
“But his jumping had not been how it had normally been.
“He has been such a grand servant and we just decided enough is enough. It is about the first time in about 25 races that he has been out of the first four, I think.
“He is a horse of a lifetime and we have been very lucky to have him.”