ALARY BID TO JOIN TIZZARD’S GOLD RAID
MOST trainers can only dream of having a runner in the Cheltenham Gold Cup — but if new recruit Alary performs how Colin Tizzard hopes at Haydock tomorrow, the Dorset trainer’s squad for the March 17 race at the Festival will swell to a remarkable five contenders. The seven-year-old, recruited from France where he was placed in two of the biggest steeplechases run in that country, will have to concede a stone and more to most of his 13 rivals in the Peter Marsh Handicap Chase at Haydock. But his performances across the Channel suggest Alary has more than enough ability to line up alongside illustrious stablemate Thistlecrack. Tizzard’s star turn is odds-on favourite for the feature race at the Cheltenham Festival after becoming the first novice to land the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day. Should Alary, who carries the colours of Ann and Alan Potts, come through tomorrow’s test at Haydock satisfactorily, talk of what Tizzard might achieve will only intensify. Bookmakers Coral make him only 5-1 to saddle the first three in the Gold Cup. In fact the odds of him emulating the 1983 history-making feat of trainer Michael Dickinson, by saddling the first five home, has been backed down to a measly 66-1. Buoyed with confidence bestowed by a season where only reigning champion Paul Nicholls has won more prize-money, Tizzard said: ‘Haydock is a finding-out mission. Alary was bought to be a Gold Cup contender. ‘He is a 162-rated horse and 160-rated horses have won the Gold Cup. ‘Alan Potts said if a good horse came on the market he would buy it, so we went to look for the best horse in France. I said to the agents, “Find us a horse we can run at Cheltenham”, which isn’t easy. ‘He is a gorgeous horse who had been trained all his life on a Flat track at Chantilly. ‘We have had him for two months and it took a while to adapt to our hill, but he is beautiful on it now. ‘It is a big question to ask of him but we are ready to start. ‘We did not want to take on Thistlecrack (in the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham on Saturday week). ‘Not yet anyway. I’d like to think he will run here and then go to Newbury (on February 11 for the Denman Chase). ‘I think he may need two runs before the Gold Cup.’