World star worth a crack over fences

The gelding, who is being readied for a tilt at the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March is ‘ready to run’ according to trainer Colin Tizzard.

Unbeaten in all of the leading staying hurdles last term, including in the World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, he has yet having jumped a fence in public.

He was due to make his debut at Chepstow a fortnight ago, however Tizzard deemed the ground to have been too quick.

But he now feels the extra time has just helped him get his stable star even closer to peak fitness ahead of the Aspen Waite Complete Business Growth Service Novices’ Chase over just shy of three miles.

“I think the extra couple of weeks have been a help to him, to be honest,” said the Dorset handler, who has his horses firing on all cylinders.

“I think he’s a bit more ready now than he was then. He’s working well and he’s fit and hard.

“We’ve had quite a good time of it of late. I was a bit concerned we were having too many seconds, so it was nice to have three winners on Sunday.

“He’s ready to run. Hopefully the ground will be fine and we’ll see what happens.

“With any novice that’s jumping fences for the first time you just hope they have a clear round and everything goes well, but we can’t say that with horses like him and Cue Card as the expectations are so high.”

Thistlecrack, favourite for the Gold Cup in some books, faces four rivals, with Philip Hobbs’ Saddlers Encore, a three-time winner over hurdles, and the Tim Vaughan-trained Aqalim taking him on.

*Dual Derby winner Harzand has been retired and will stand at the Aga Khan’s Gilltown Stud in 2017.

Trained by Dermot Weld, the Sea The Stars colt overcame a late scare to win the Investec Derby at Epsom in June.

Having spread a plate in transit, he needed constant treatment in the run up to the race and showed great courage to hold off US Army Ranger.

It was then a rush to prepare him for the Irish Derby but he once again displayed a willing attitude to fend off Aidan O’Brien’s Idaho.

His season ended with defeats in the Irish Champion Stakes, in which he suffered another injury, and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in which he finished ninth.

Weld said: “He’s been a wonderful horse to train.

“I’ve enjoyed training him. He’s won two Derbies for us. He’s a beautifully-made colt, very sound.”