‘I’m dreaming.. it just doesn’t get any better’
NATIVE RIVER stemmed the green tide to lift the Cheltenham Gold Cup and fulfil a lifelong ambition for trainer Colin Tizzard.
Irish-trained horses dominated proceedings over the four days, capturing 17 of the fixture’s 28 races.
But the greatest prize of them all was won by Tizzard’s yard on the DorsetSomerset border after Native River and Richard Johnson stayed on up the hill to beat Nicky Henderson’s 4-1 favourite Might Bite, with Anibale Fly in third.
Tizzard travelled to Cheltenham as a teenager to watch Gold Cups won by Glencaraig Lady (1972) and The Dikler (1973).
“I came here as a young farmer and stood at the last fence,” said the 62-yearold dairy farmer – a winner with 33-1 shot Kilbricken Storm in the preceding Albert Bartlett, who began training with two point-topointers in 1995 to help his son Joe’s fledgling career as a jockey.
“I never even dreamed I’d have a runner here, let alone a winner.
“It doesn’t get any better – I can’t believe it!” added Tizzard (above).
“This was my fourth day here and the Irish have blown us away. I said to our lot, ‘We need to buck up a bit.’ Christ, we have now, haven’t we?” Native River looked quarry for the easy-going Might Bite and Nico de Boinville running to the last two of the blue ribbon event’s 22 obstacles. But a success in the Welsh National at Chepstow last winter was proof of the eight-year-old’s staying power. “Lots of horses look like they were going to win two out, and they haven’t quite got up the hill,” said Johnson, 40, who won the 2000 Gold Cup with Looks Like Trouble. “I knew that however flat out I was, I would keep going – the more you ask him, the more he gives.”
The reformed screwball Might Bite’s defeat meant there was no ‘Holy Trinity’ of triumphs after Buveur D’Air in Wednesday’s Champion Hurdle and Altior in the Champion Chase the following day – for Henderson.
“It’s always a difficult place to finish but we’re proud of him,” said the trainer.
“You can’t say he tried to shirk it today.
“But Might Bite never flinched.”