Colin Tizzard backs Thistlecrack to make full recovery
Friday 24 February 2017 16:41, UK
Trainer Colin Tizzard says Thistlecrack "will be fine for next season" following the nine-year-old's season-ending injury.
The dominant force in the staying hurdle division last year will not run in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March after being ruled out for the remainder of the campaign with a tendon injury.
Thistlecrack won his first four starts over fences, including a scintillating victory in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day.
Despite suffering a narrow defeat at the hands of the ill-fated Many Clouds in the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham at the end of January, Thistlecrack remained at the head of the betting for the Timico Gold Cup on March 17, but will not line up at Prestbury Park.
The long-term prognosis for Thistlecrack is positive, though, with his trainer already plotting a return to Kempton over Christmas for a repeat bid in the King George VI Chase.
"I was devastated. He is a superstar," said Tizzard. "It got to me a bit but 24 hours later and I'm fine. I'll take the positives out of it.
"We found it before it became a proper problem. He's won us the World Hurdle and King George and I'm as sure as I could ever be that he'll be fine for next season."
Tizzard, though, still has an imposing hand in the Gold Cup bringing the racing festival to a climax with his impressive Welsh Grand National winner Native River, the new favourite.
He added: "Native River had a prep race, didn't he? I know it was only a three-runner race at Newbury, but he showed us something we haven't seen before when he sprinted clear from the last.
"He's a gorgeous horse and has mixed it all season in the three chases he's run in and they're very competitive races. He'll come out on top and he's a lovely staying chaser."
He also has the veteran Cue Card on course for another tilt at a race which saw him come to grief three fences from home last year when in line for a million pound bonus had he won it.
"We've always been mindful of him getting older and that's why he doesn't go out and eat foot long grass for three months and get fat and lie down, like I do.
"We've kept an element of in him and rolled him out everyday and let him out in the field to keep him fit."
