'They'll need to stay well this year and Native River stays as long as you like'

This stable tour was originally printed in the Racing Post Weekender on Wednesday, February 5. Buy the Weekender every Wednesday for stable tours from the biggest names right up to Cheltenham.

There is a growing sense of anticipation at Venn Farm in the build-up to Cheltenham, with an armada of exciting stars being brought to a crescendo as they go through their final preparations.

Colin Tizzard will field one of the strongest British teams at the four-day festival, which includes arguably the strongest crop of novices among his peers.

“We gear everything towards Cheltenham and I reckoned the other day that we would have 26 horses running there for us,” said the trainer.

“Some will be strongly fancied and others not so much but that doesn’t bother me as we’ve had a couple of 40-1 shots win there, including Cue Card who was that price when he won the bumper.