Cleeve Hurdle next up for Thistlecrack Colin Tizzard has stressed next month's Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham will almost certainly be the next stopping point for Thistlecrack. All being well, the seven-year-old will take in the Grade Two three-mile contest Cheltenham on January 30th before returning to the track in March for a shot at the Ladbrokes World Hurdle. Having defeated reigning World Hurdle hero Cole Harden on his seasonal return in the Long Distance Hurdle at Newbury last month, Thistlecrack took his form to new heights with a facile success in the Grade One Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot on Saturday. Tizzard said: "He has come out of the race at Ascot absolutely fine and has eaten up. "The Cleeve Hurdle comes at about the right time. "It is five to six weeks away and he will go there then on the Cheltenham Festival. I am sure that is the route we will take. "He is a big, strong, powerful horse and I was expecting that sort of performance and nothing less. "He found improvement in the spring and we thought it could have been for the better ground, but it is the fact that he has gone up to three miles." Tizzard insists he has no intention of sending Thistlecrack over fences, for the time being. The Dorset handler said: "He looks like a chaser and his dam was a good stayer over fences. "He is seven, going on eight, but he is doing a very good job in this discipline and picking up an awful lot of money. "The competition is probably not so hot so we will stay on this route this year and I see no reason to change so I don't think we will ask him that question yet."
