Festival dilemma for Tizzard as Harry Senior states his case with Ballymore win

Harry Senior added his name to the sizeable list of talented novice hurdlers in Colin Tizzard’s yard with an authoritative victory over favourite King Roland to put himself in line for a possible tilt at the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

King Roland appeared to have matters under control going to the final hurdle but had no answers to Tizzard’s charge, who had to be extricated from a pocket on the home bend by Robbie Power, as he powered up the hill for a two and a quarter length win.

Tizzard said: "The plan will be to enter Harry Senior for the Ballymore and the Albert Bartlett and take it from there. I think he will go for the Ballymore if the ground is very testing or the Albert Bartlett over three miles if it looks like being good for the last day of the festival.

"His performance out there suggests the three-miler is the race for him. Luckily we don't have to make that decision now, but we face quite a testing time for the yard over the next six weeks or so as we've got a number of nice young hurdlers such as this one, The Big Breakaway, Master Debonair and Fiddlerontheroof, and we have to get them all to the festival first.

"It's a nice problem to have and the biggest dilemma is trying to keep them apart but, at the end of the day, my job is to run them in the races where they have the best chance of winning and if that means two of them competing in the same race then so be it."

Harry Senior pings the last flight of hurdles on his way to victory at CheltenhamCredit: Edward Whitaker

The Harry Fry-trained King Roland was sent off a well-backed 6-4 chance on his first step into Graded company and his supporters had every right to be counting their winnings between the last two hurdles, but it was not be and their money stayed in the bookmakers' satchels.

Fry was understandably downbeat about the defeat, and said: "He looked to have the race under lock and key going to the final hurdle. However he then flattened out before running on again, but the winner had gone. On that showing he is not good enough for the festival, but we will have to wait and see."

Watch Harry Senior win the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle

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