Game Spirit Chase Tips: Tizzard Charge The One To Back

The feature race on Saturday at Newbury certainly lost some sparkle with Sir Gino's withdrawal on Friday morning, but the race is now a much more tantalising betting heat. Billy Grimshaw has ripped up his preview focusing on the without Gino market and has a new piece for us here...

The joys of this job mean often times you write something that never sees the light of day, and that is what has now happened to my previous preview of this race in which I waxed lyrical about how wonderful it was we would see Sir Gino in here against his elders and the hope I had we saw a real wow display from the champion elect. He's picked up a slight knock (don't worry antepost Arkle backers, he'll be fine for March) though and as such the shape of this race is now completely different without the Henderson hotpot. I was set to tip up JPR ONE without the favourite and after much pondering, I am still convinced he rates the bet now win only in this race which will be a much changed contest.

Team Tizzard have never hidden their adoration of this horse and he was one of Britain's leading Arkle hopes last season, albeit he came up short in that race itself. His return to action this season was a quite brilliant bounce back after wind surgery and a long break when he trounced a decent field at Exeter in the Haldon Gold Cup, always travelling best and picking up leader Sans Bruit with ease before stretching clear. His jumping was once again pin point accurate and this win marked him as a contender once more in the biggest prizes this season over this sort of trip. Giving away weight due to his penalty will be tricky, but not an insurmountable task and it's factored into his price.

He is ground versatile which is always a plus and although he could not go with Jonbon in the Tingle Creek last time out, there's no disgrace in that and plenty of other rivals in here have seen that horse's backside when the going gets tough on numerous occasions. That day both Edwardstone and Master Chewy fell in the race but I fancy if they'd stayed upright they'd have been behind our fancy here, yet the veteran Edwardstone is a much, much shorter price for glory in here.

Alan King seems to have a real disinclination to allowing his horses to make the running, but Edwardstone is clearly better these days off the front end and if he is held up again here I don't think he'll be in the three. That would leave Matata, now favourite since Sir Gino's withdrawal, as the chief pace angle and whilst I do respect him off the back of a career best performance when bolting up from the front at Windsor, he has not been the model of consistency just yet so I'd want to see him back that up before steaming in at odds of sub 2/1.

I don't think he'll get an easy lead either as Master Chewy likes to get on with things, along with our pick JPR One, and so there is also the potential that Matata sulks a little once challenged for the outright lead. At the prices JPR One looks a no brainer bet to me, with the market underestimating him in a race where he won't have the dauting task of reeling in a peak form Jonbon. Another feather in his cap is that he is not aiming for Cheltenham as the be all and end all for his campaign, with his trainer realising he probably can't win a Champion Chase and not wanting to go handicapping. He should be primed for this and I expect a big run.

The horse I fear most, perhaps other than Matata with an easy lead, is Libberty Hunter. He is a hold up horse who will love it if Matata blasts off, and although now nine still doesn't have many miles on the clock. His Cheltenham handicap win in mid December was silky smooth and he is clearly in good form this season, however I can't help but think they will target a return to Cheltenham in March for the Grand Annual and as such winning here or even going close could well scupper that dream.