Colin Tizzard (14 October 2021): "He doesn't really need any introducing, but he has been a real flagbearer for our yard and still continues to be. He looks fantastic at the moment and as he has got older, he has become more ground dependent. When he gets his conditions right, he is very good as he showed in the Cotswold Chase, which was run at Sandown last year, when putting in one of the best performances of a chaser all season and he was most impressive. We are just going to get the ground right for him, but he is fit and ready to run. If it turned up soft, then he would go to Haydock for the Betfair Chase. Beyond that we will just wait for the ground to come right, and the Cotswold Chase would be a possible target again. He will have a Gold Cup entry, but he wouldn't necessarily go there unless it was nice and soft."
Colin Tizzard (01 March 2021): "They say the good old best horses always get you out of a bit of a pickle and he was a winner we have been waiting for (Cotswold Chase). Himself he has been absolutely bombproof these last couple of years and he has gone under the radar a little bit. He did nothing wrong last year and was two from two and just slightly tweaked a tendon in the Denman Chase. This year he came back and ran a blinder in the Many Clouds and the Cotswold being at Sandown ticked his boxed and he is the highest rated chaser in England at the moment and deserves to be so. After last year we were feeling his legs for two or three days and that was the main concern, but they are absolutely fine and there is no sign of anything. It was genuine soft ground at Sandown, and he's bounced out of it. He is a very easy horse to train in that sense as he is pretty tough, and he doesn't need to do anything special to keep him right. He just loves his day-to-day routine and looks particularly well. He jarred himself up in the National Hunt Chase then went on to win the Gold Cup. It is not that we would have liked to run him more often, that just how it is. There are horses that haven't bounced back after meeting Native River and that is testament to the horse - although he wears blinkers that's just to focus his mind - he is a very tough and genuine horse. Someone said to me that in 20 runs in chases (the furthest down the field he finished) was fourth and that was in a Gold Cup - that shows how good a horse he is, though nowadays I would say he would need a bit of soft ground otherwise some of them might just be too quick for him. With the soft ground he can just maintain that gallop and I think he is performing every bit as well as when winning a Gold Cup, he is just a bit more ground dependent."
Colin Tizzard (08 October 2020): "He is back in full work and won’t run until December when he goes back up to Aintree for the Many Clouds which he bolted up in last year. He doesn’t owe us a thing and he’s a hell of a chap. We will look after him a bit and pick and choose our way. He will have an entry in the Grand National, but it will be up to the owner if he goes there."
