Colin Tizzard

Colin Tizzard holding a horse
colintizzard.co.uk

Colin Tizzard decided it was time to pull down the curtain on an excellent 24-year training career in April 2022, handing over the reins to his son Joe Tizzard, who would be the sole license holder in the yard from this moment on.

It brought an end to what has been an excellent career, culminating in a real golden period of winners at the top level in a period between 2015 and 2018. Tizzard won the Cheltenham Gold Cup and many other Grade One contests during that period but never the Grand National.

This was a race that eluded him, though in the defence of Tizzard, he only actually had seven runners in the race over the years, it wasn’t one that he truly targeted. Born on January 7th, 1956, Tizzard began training in 1998, but it wasn’t until the second part of his career, from 2010 onwards, that he really had any kind of success and worked his way into the top tier of British racing.

Colin Tizzard Grand National Wins

Colin Tizzard has never trained a horse that has won the Grand National.

Their best finish to date was in 2022 with Fiddlerontheroof ridden by Brendan Powell Jnr who came 5th.

Full Results

Year Horse Result Prize Money Jockey
2022 Fiddlerontheroof 5 £40,000 Brendan Powell Jnr
2022 Lostintranslation 15 - Harry Cobden
2021 Mister Malarky Fence 17 - Pulled Up - Jonjo O’Neill Jr
2019 Ultragold 14 - Tom O’Brien
2018 The Dutchman Fence 23 - Unseated Rider - Harry Cobden
2010 Joe Lively 10 - Joe Tizzard
2001 Mister One Fence 9 - Unseated Rider - Leslie Jefford

No Grand National Wins From Seven Attempts

As mentioned, despite a strong 24-year career, where he went right to the top of UK racing for a period and performed well against yards with bigger backers and deeper pockets, Colin Tizzard never won the Grand National.

But that isn’t really something that will worry the Somerset handler, as it wasn’t actually a race he targeted too often. Tizzard spent 24 years training horses and, during that period, was probably best known for the success he had with staying chasers. Still, despite that, he only actually saddled seven runners in the Aintree showpiece.

Of these seven runners, only four managed to get around, and his best performance came on his last attempt in April 2022. He had two runners this year, and Fiddlerontheroof was the best of those, running well to finish fifth. Joe Lively, back in 2010, was the only other top 10 finish Tizzard had in the race when he came 10th in that race.

A Cheltenham Gold Cup Win In 2018

While the Grand National eluded Tizzard during his training career, the Cheltenham Gold Cup was one race that didn’t. After trying with Cue Card a few years earlier, Tizzard finally got his hands on one of the biggest prizes in racing when he won the race in 2018 with Native River.

Native River was, in many ways, the perfect Gold Cup horse. He had the class to go up against anyone but was a great stayer, not only did he relish three miles, but he needed further, which made the 3m2f Gold Cup test ideal for him when it is sometimes too far for some.

That could be said about stablemate Cue Card, who Tizzard tried to win the Gold Cup with, but ultimately, in those final couple of furlongs, Cue Card had nothing left to give, whereas Native River kicked again and dug deep, which he did in 2018 when winning the race.

Golden Period Of Grade One Wins 2015-2018

While Tizzard spent 24 years training racehorses, success was not easy to come by, and it took many years for the yard to be big enough, and with enough quality in it, to really challenge the big boys of racing.

This did come, though, in a four-year period from 2015 until 2018 when Tizzard landed most of his big race wins.

Cue Card winning the King George in 2015 was the real start of this push, and in the build-up to that race, Cue Card also won his second Betfair Chase, while Thistlecrack won the Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot. This was followed up in March 2016 with Thistlecrack taking the Stayers Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and then taking the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree a month later. The King George was won again in 2016, but this time, Thistlecrack took honours, now chasing, while Cue Card was second to give the Tizzard team a 1-2 in one of the biggest national hunt races.

The success was bringing new horses into the yard, and novice races over both hurdles and fences were being won by exciting new recruits, who never really made the top but did keep the success coming for a short period.

Perhaps the biggest of all these wins during the golden era for Team Tizzard came at the end when Native River won the 2018 Gold Cup. He’d finished third a year earlier but landed the big one in 2018, much to the delight of Colin, who had always believed he could land a Gold Cup with this runner, and that turned out to be one of the final really big wins of Colin’s career.

Famous Horses Trained By Colin Tizzard

Here are some of the famous horses trained by Colin Tizzard during his career.

Cue Card

Native River

Thistlecrack