JOE Tizzard, assistant trainer to father Colin, is relishing Saturday’s £1million Randox Grand National at Aintree (5.15pm).
Joe, who takes over the training license at Venn Farm stables at the end of the season, believes the eight-year-old has the right profile for the four and a quarter-mile contest following an excellent season so far.
The Stowaway gelding returned to action with an excellent performance to land the Listed Colin Parker Memorial at Carlisle in October, before he finished a fine second to Cloudy Glen in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury in November.
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Given a mid-season break following that effort, he returned to action with a respectable second in Listed company at Ascot over three miles in February, going down by a half-length to fellow Grand National contender Fortescue. Fiddlerontheroof is 16/1 for the event, whilst Venn Farm could also run Lostinranslation who is 66/1 for the contest with Betfair.
Allotted 11st 4lb for the world’s most famous chase, Tizzard is hopeful of a bold showing from the Dorset team’s stable star in the contest staged over 30 fences which you can watch live on ITV Racing at 5.15pm on Saturday.
Discussing Fiddlerontheroof, Tizzard said: “Fiddlerontheroof is a lovely jumper. He has a lovely way of racing and he doesn’t waste any energy. He just sits on the bridle and Brendan Powell will be able to ride him any way he wants.
“You do need a bit of luck in any race, especially the Grand National. He stayed well in the Ladbrokes Trophy and at Ascot so I have no worries about that. The way he runs, he just saves a bit so if everything goes to plan, I think he will be there two out.
“Whether he is good enough or there is something better than him fair enough, but if he runs his race, he should be in there with a shout.
“He won the Colin Parker and then the Ladbrokes Trophy seemed an obvious target. He was a bit tight four-out and then he just had to sidestep Remastered when he fell in the home straight which cost him some momentum and he then stayed all the way through to the line.
“After Newbury, we thought about the Grand National. We didn’t want to run him in the King George, so we waited until the weights were out for the Grand National. He is 2lb well-in for the race as he gets to run off 155 and he is actually rated 157. I don’t think it makes us really well-handicapped, but I think we have a horse who is very competitive off his mark and therefore ticks a lot of boxes for it.
“Fiddlerontheroof didn’t travel or jump as well as he can at Ascot last time out. His class suddenly brought him through and he came to win the race. He just got nabbed on the run-in. The end result and performance was fine.”
“He took on the best last year and he was arguably one of our most consistent horses. He didn’t do a great deal wrong last season, he just came up against some good horses. We tweaked his wind over the summer and everything has gone well with him.”
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