Tizzard taking his Cue at Haydock

Colin Tizzard's stable star Cue Card is out to regain the Betfair Chase prize he won in 2013 at Haydock on Saturday.

That was the season he also landed the Ascot Chase and the Ryanair Chase, as well as filling the runner-up spot behind Silviniaco Conti in the King George.

He endured a torrid time after returning from injury last season, but looked right back to his best after a wind operation when dominating last month's Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby.

"He came out of Wetherby absolutely fine. Joe (Tizzard) thinks he's improved. We think he's better than he was at Wetherby," said Tizzard.

"At Wetherby he was getting the allowances and Silviniaco Conti and the rest are going to be hard to beat, but he's back nearly to where he ever was.

"He's a happy horse and when we worked him earlier in the week, he came up the gallop with his head in his chest and roaring away."

The prospect of testing conditions holds no fears for the Dorset-based trainer.

He told At The Races: "He wants to do it and now he can breathe again properly, I'm sure he'll do it again. Some of his best form is in heavy ground. He'll float on top of heavy ground no worries at all.

"I think in these championship races, they'll take it in turns winning. With a horse it's got to be on the day.

"If we get beat it's not the end of the world. We've got no right to win them all and on the day, one bad jump can put paid to any horse."

Tom Scudamore admits he found it difficult to choose between David Pipe-trained duo Dynaste and Ballynagour, eventually siding with the former, who has been placed in this race for the last two years.

There was little to choose between the pair when second and third behind Cue Card in West Yorkshire three weeks ago.

Conor O'Farrell rides Ballynagour this weekend.

"It was a very difficult choice, they are both top-class horses and they have been great friends to me over the years," Scudamore told Racing UK.

"I've had a lot of very good days on them. Ballynagour winning in France was probably one of the best days I've had racing, so it was a very difficult choice. But at the end of the day you're not in it for emotions, you want to win these races and I just felt Dynaste shaded it.

"But there's very little in it, I was as sleepless as I get thinking about it.

"In the end I plumped for Dynaste, he's run so well there before, been second and third, he's a Grade One winner and a top-class horse. So are all the other ones, but I felt he probably just shaded it.

"Hopefully it's a different result to the Charlie Hall. If Cue Card is back to form, he's probably run to a similar level as when he was second to him (in 2013). It's a different day on Saturday and the ground won't bother him, he's run well on heavy.

"He'll handle everything, obviously Silviniaco Conti and Cue Card are wonderful horses, but the three of them have had some fantastic battles over the years and I'm sure Saturday will be no different.

"He's very straightforward, I ride him as I find him, just let him do his thing and he's good enough to get me there."

The field is completed by Jonjo O'Neill's Holywell, who was fourth in last season's Cheltenham Gold Cup. He needs to raise his game significantly after finishing fifth in the Charlie Hall, though.

O'Neill said: "Holywell is fine and there is not a bother on him. I thought Wetherby was OK for a first run of the season, although obviously it wasn't as good as we would have liked it to be.

"The ground at Haydock is soft at the moment and that should be OK - he has won on similar ground before."