Colin Tizzard had the result he had always dreamed of when Native River won the Cheltenham Gold Cup last March and he finished the 2017/18 season just under £25,000 pounds short of the £2million pound barrier for a second successive term.
There was further icing on the cake at Cheltenham when Kilbricken Storm took the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle and another successive victory for Ultragold in the Topham Handicap Chase at Aintree.
The Dutchman was another to make a major prize money contribution to the total when he took the Peter Marsh at Haydock and Tizzard is patiently waiting for the rain to arrive for a team that includes a very healthy number of potentially high-class novice chasers in the shape of Kilbricken Storm, Lostintranslation, The Russian Doyen and Vision Des Flos.
Native River will be earmarked for an attempt at a second Gold Cup win and stablemate Fox Norton will be back to throw his weight about in the two-mile chasing division.
It is looks like there another busy and lucrative time ahead for the Venn Farm team and Colin kindly spoke to Tony Elves of attheraces.com about his major hopes to make 2018/19 another season to remember.
