Tizzards are plotting positive Ryanair route

The high-class seven-year-old cashed in on a final-fence mistake by Captain Chris in the Betfair Ascot Chase in February, when he made virtually all of the running to win by six lengths.

Tizzard and his jockey son, Joe, are likely to employ similarly positive tactics in the Ryanair, which was chosen over the Queen Mother Champion Chase as Cue Card’s Festival target.

“Everything’s right for him,” said the handler. “It’s going to be beautiful ground so that’s obviously a big plus. Joe will jump off and if anyone wants to try and go faster than him, they are welcome to do so.”

The main challenger is the Irish raider First Lieutenant who skips tomorrow’s Gold Cup. Mouse Morris’s inmate was narrowly denied by Tidal Bay in an epic renewal of the Lexus Chase on his last start over Christmas.

“He’s getting that bit stronger now and he has run well on bottomless ground before,” said Morris who was educated at Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire. “We’ve got to stop making excuses for him now. It’s time for him to go and do it on the track.”

This is one of the few Cheltenham races where man-of-the-moment Willie Mullins does not have a runner.

Mullins does saddle So Young in the Ladbrokes World Hurdle, but it is significant that jockey Ruby Walsh has opted to ride the Paul Nicholls-trained Wonderful Charm.

This is the race that Nicholls and Walsh have monopolised for the past four seasons with Big Buck’s, who misses today’s renewal through injury.

Wonderful Charm has only raced once in this country, winning at Chepstow last October, but Nicholls is confident.

“Ruby liked him when he rode him work the other day and we thought if you don’t shoot, you don’t win,” he said.

“We don’t know whether he’ll stay because he’s never been further than two and a half, but he’s done everything right at home and it’s a bit of a challenge. We think he’ll run a big race. Because we haven’t run him over the winter, we don’t know what we’ve got.”

The one to beat is Reve De Sivola from the yard of Nick Williams. A winner of the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham in late January, he is jockey Richard Johnson’s best chance of a winner this week.

Johnson has a 100 per cent record on the eight-year-old following two successes this season and his first Festival winner came in this race on the fast finishing Anzum in 1999.

“I was very lucky to pick up the ride on him just before Christmas and we’ve won the Long Walk and the Cleeve,” he said.