Cheltenham Beckons For Tysou

Victor Chandler Chase winner Tysou will be heading to Cheltenham for another crack at the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase.

After finishing fourth in the race last season, his regular partner Mick Fitzgerald is hoping the nine-year-old can continue on the upward curve and claim an emotional victory for the gelding?s trainer, Nicky Henderson.

The race is run in honour of Henderson?s late father and for obvious reasons it is the one contest the Lambourn handler would like to add to his already impressive list of Festival winners.

For Fitzgerald though, the weekend?s victory was reward for a string of creditable efforts in top handicap company.

'Tysou has been a model of consistency throughout his career and he finally hit the jackpot on Saturday,' Fitzgerald told At The Races.

'You only have to look at his form figures to see how consistent he is. He runs in all the top two-mile handicaps and normally gets a place, but before Saturday he hadn?t hit the jackpot.

'He was racing off a career-high rating on Saturday so I think he deserves a little bit of credit.

'I think we?ll be heading to Cheltenham for the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual now. I really fancied him last year and it was a race Nicky was desperate to win for a number of reasons.

'We had the third, fourth and sixth though which was slightly disappointing. We didn?t have anything good enough to win it. This fellow will go back there but again he is going to have to race off a career-high mark.'

? PA Sport