‘I’ve told the owners they need a passport!’ - Joe Tizzard outlines grand plans for star hurdler Alexei

Alexei has already been a star over hurdles this season for Joe Tizzard but the trainer is hopeful it doesn’t end here – and big ambitions on the Flat could follow a potential Champion Hurdle tilt.

Tizzard was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in which he reveals just how badly the loss of his sister Kim set the yard back, opens up about the pressure as he saw numbers heading in the wrong direction and discusses the exciting team of youngsters that has put Team Tizzard back on track.

Leading the way has been Alexei, the German recruit who has already improved his hurdles mark by 20lb. Second in the Welsh Champion Hurdle on his comeback last month, he was an impressive winner at Ascot on November 1 and followed up in devastating fashion 15 days later in the Greatwood Hurdle off a 7lb higher handicap mark. 

"We really fancied him at Cheltenham but didn't know he was going to go and do that," said Tizzard of Alexei's six-length success. "He's gone up another 13lb for that, so he's rated 147 now and it's a whole different ball game.

"We'll go to Ascot at Christmas for the big two-mile handicap hurdle and if he wins that it opens a different door. Off 134, he was a fair way off, but if he went and won at Ascot off 147, then he'll get jacked up again and all of a sudden he's not far off. You could then stick him in a Kingwell or something."

Joe Tizzard with his stable jockey Brendan PowellCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

If contemplating the best two-mile races over hurdles feels a little alien for a stable renowned for its success with staying chasers, then Tizzard's next revelation turns convention on its head. 

"We entered him on the Flat just before the Welsh Champion Hurdle but it was heavy at Salisbury and we didn't run, but they gave him a Flat rating of 74. I've told his owners, Garth and Anne Broom, that they need to get a passport because if it was Willie Mullins they'd be travelling the world, and they love it.

"He's the sort of horse that you could aim at an Ebor or something like that at the end of the summer. That would be different again for me but I've got plenty of people around me who follow the Flat and have ideas. You'd have to think he'd be thrown in off 74, wouldn't you? Garth and Anne would be up for it."

Read more from Joe Tizzard in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Racing Post+ Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday.

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