RIVER CAN CRUISE HOME

JOE TIZZARD says Native River will not be ‘hiding away’ from Might Bite as the Cheltenham Gold Cup one-two square up in Saturday’s Betfair Chase, the first of what could be a series of dust-ups this season.

The shorter distance and quicker ground at Haydock — compared to their Festival clash — has prompted the sponsors to make Nicky Henderson’s Might Bite evens favourite to avenge his Cheltenham defeat by Native River (11-4).

But Tizzard, assistant to his father Colin who trains Native River, says those who brand the eight-year-old frontrunner as a ‘slugger’ are wrong.

Joe said: ‘We have massive respect for Might Bite but we are not going to hide away from him. Native River has been given this brand that he is a slugger. Don’t get me wrong, he is as tough as they come, but his great ability is that he has a very high cruising pace. Haydock has nice galloping straights where you can wind it up from a long way out. The course won’t be a problem, he has been pretty good around plenty of tracks.’

The nine entries for the £200,000 Betfair Chase also include Tizzard-trained Thistlecrack, who is running for the first time since sustaining a stress fracture when fourth to Might Bite in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, and last year’s winner, Bristol de Mai, trained by Nigel Twiston-Davies.

Paul Nicholls has declared Clan Des Obeaux and Politologue but the latter has the Christy 1965 Chase at Ascot on the same day as his No 1 target.

Regular jockey Nico de Boinville will not know if he can ride Might Bite until the plaster on his fractured thumb is removed tomorrow.