Sizing Tennessee storms to Ladbrokes Trophy win

Colin Tizzard picked up his second Ladbrokes Trophy win at Newbury on Saturday

COLIN Tizzard believes winning the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury 'is like our Gold Cup day' after Sizing Tennessee took the glory in the main event on Saturday.

Previously winning with Native River in 2016, Tizzard picked up his second trophy in West Berkshire, with Tom Scudamore cruising to victory.

Sizing Tennessee, priced at 12/1, finished comfortably ahead of Elegant Escape in second and Dingo Dollar in third.

"Sometime's you get lucky," Tizzard said. "But we have left him for six-weeks to come to this race and we thought there would be only one race before Christmas, and he goes and does that.

"It's lucky how it works out, but he strolled away with it," he said. "I thought Elegant Escape ran a very solid race, and West Approach was there for a long time."

The trainer from Sherborne knew the difficulty of winning this prestigious race, but was overjoyed with the outcome.

He said: "We have been disappointed three or four times at Newbury because it's mega competitive.

"This is like our gold cup day, this is absolutely fantastic for him and I'm sure we could leave him five or six weeks more for something bigger.

"Things happen and we don't know what will happen next, that's the beauty of national hunt racing - if they're inform they're in with a chance," he added.

Scudamore, who also picked up his second Ladbrokes Trophy win [after winning in 2008 with Madison du Berlais] said: "His form last year was very good and if you fancied Ms Parfois, you had to fancy this one too.

"I was very confident, Ladbrokes Trophies are also very hard to win because it's fiercely competitive, but he ran absolutely brilliantly and even at the age of 10, he was very much under the radar," he added.

Sizing Tennessee was the first 10-year-old to with the prestigious trophy since Diamond Edge back in 1981.

Santini on the ball for Henderson

Earlier on in the day, Seven Barrows trainer Nicky Henderson picked up his first of two winners when Santini won the John Francome Novices'.

Despite a late challenge from Rocky's Treasure, Nico de Boiville guided Henderson's horse over the line.

After the race, the Lambourn trainer said: "I am really, really pleased because that is hard going for a horse first time out.

"We knew he would stay, I just wasn't sure if he was fit enough, it's a huge improvement," he added.

Henderson also won the Handicap Hurdle as Champ finished ahead of Le Musee and Speedo Boy respectively.

For all the reaction and images from the Ladbrokes Winter Carnival, pick up a copy of this week's Newbury Weekly News - out Thursday.