Tizzards' Gold Cup team to take shape after Ascot runs for two big-race hopes

Just days after Eldorado Allen ran away with the Denman Chase at Newbury, the Tizzards will put the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup hopes of two more of their stable stars to the test when Lostintranslation and Fiddlerontheroof head to Ascot on Saturday.

The 2019 Betfair Chase winner Lostintranslation finished third to Al Boum Photo in the 2020 Gold Cup but was pulled up behind Minella Indo last year.

The ten-year-old bounced back to form over the Grade 1 Betfair Ascot Chase (3.35) course and distance in the Chanelle Pharma 1965 Chase in November and was last seen finishing fifth behind Tornado Flyer in the King George.

"Lostintranslation is in great form, although the King George has thrown up a lot of spanners," said Joe Tizzard, assistant to his father Colin. "It was a funny old race this season and he took a day or two to get over it.

"We brought Cue Card to Ascot and it's the perfect prep run for the spring. The fact he won around Ascot over 2m5f at the start of the season it seems the obvious race to aim him for.

"It's cut up to eight possible runners so it's a wide-open race and on his form in the autumn he should be there or thereabouts."

Fiddlerontheroof (left): set for a first start since November's Ladbrokes Trophy at Ascot on SaturdayCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Fiddlerontheroof was taken out of Saturday's feature Betfair Ascot Chase on Monday, with the Ladbrokes Trophy runner-up tackling handicap company in the Listed Swinley Chase (2.25) earlier on the card.

"Fiddler had a hard enough race in the Ladbrokes Trophy and we didn't want to run him until the weights for the National were out so this was always the plan," explained Tizzard.

"He's in a handicap off 155 and I'm sure he'll be very competitive in a good race in its own right. After that we'll decide whether we'll take our chance in the Gold Cup or wait and go straight to the National, but let's get this weekend out the way first."

Eldorado Allen's Newbury win has been the highlight of the yard's recent fine form which has also featured a double at Kempton on Friday, with Killer Kane and Elixir Du Nutz scoring plus a winning chasing debut for The Widdow Maker in a competitive affair at Exeter on Sunday.

Although Tizzard missed out on attending Newbury due to feeling unwell, nothing could dampen his spirits, with the recent run resulting in the team sailing past last season's total of 37 winners, which had been their lowest for eight years.

"By our standards it wasn't a good year last year or the end of the season before perhaps," said Tizzard. "The horses have been fit and well most of the season and they're running very well at the moment which is lovely, that's how we want them.

"There's always Cheltenham prep runs taking place around this time and again at Ascot this weekend so it's fun to have the horses in the form they are."

After Eldorado Allen's successful step up in trip there was a suggestion of supplementing him for £30,000 to join his stablemates with entries for the Gold Cup, although Tizzard is inclined to stick to the Ryanair route for which he is as short as 10-1 with Paddy Power.

Eldorado Allen: likely to stick to Ryanair routeCredit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)

"The Ryanair was always the plan hence that's what he was entered in," Tizzard explained. "If it hadn't quite worked out on Saturday I probably would have entered him in a handicap as well at Cheltenham but two miles seven and a half around Newbury on good ground is a lot different to the Gold Cup.

"I wouldn't stop John [Romans] and Terry [Warner] if they wanted to stick him in it but if I had to stick my neck on the line for now I would say the Ryanair is probably enough for this year and then we can go three miles at Aintree and then look at races like the Charlie Hall at the beginning of next season."

The Tizzards' strong start to 2022 continued on Monday as grandson Fred Gingell's success aboard Lanspark at Plumpton took the stable to 15 winners since the turn of the year on what was also a landmark 300th winner for the last five seasons.

Tizzard, who sits just four short of a half-century of winners for the season, will be hoping to maintain the recent run as Gingell aims to make it three wins in a row under rules and back-to-back wins aboard West Approach in the hunter chase (4.30) at Lingfield on Tuesday.

Read more:

Gold Cup or Ryanair? Eldorado Allen camp in two minds over Cheltenham target

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