Gold Cup-winning trainer Colin Tizzard to retire and hand reins over to son Joe at the end of the season

TOP trainer Colin Tizzard will retire at the end of the season and hand his licence over to his son Joe.

The former dairy farmer has been a leading force in jumps racing for the past decade.

Tizzard will hand his licence over to son Joe later this year

But after the tragic death of his daughter Kim Gingell at the age of just 43 to cancer last year and a quiet 12 months for the stable, he has decided the time is right to step back.

He said: “Joe will be on the licence soon. I don’t fancy ‘Colin and Joe’. I’m 65.

“It won’t change anything – I’ll still argue with him every morning! He deserves to go on as you don’t want to go on too late in life.

“He is doing a good job and it (retirement) was always going to be 65. I’ve got other things I wouldn’t mind doing. I don’t want to wake up every morning worrying about horses all the time.

“I might want to take the wife away to New Zealand and places like that which I’ve not been able to do as I’ve been doing the horses the last 25 years.

“As soon as he has done his modules (he will be on the licence). He should be on by next season. There is plenty of time over the summer to get it done.

“There is nothing to sort out, just change one name. It won’t change one iota as Joe is doing more and more. He deserves to have his name at the top.”

Cue Card put the Tizzard stable on the map when winning the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival in 2010.

The popular chaser went on to win nine races at Grade 1 level, including the 2015 King George and 2013 Ryanair Chase.

Tizzard also enjoyed top-level success with the likes of Thistlecrack, Finian’s Oscar and Lostintranslation in recent years.

And he is hoping his final Festival as a trainer produces a winner or two.

Native River won the 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup

Cue Card (right) won a thrilling King George in 2015

Thistlecrack won multiple Grade 1 races for the Tizzard’s

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Among his strong team of runners heading to next week’s meeting is 2018 Gold Cup hero Native River, who is bidding for a fairytale success in the Blue Riband at the age of 11.

He said: “He has won a Gold Cup, been third and fourth in a Gold Cup and been second in a National Hunt Chase so he likes Cheltenham.

“He is 11 and we understand that, but he has had a brillant prep. He went to Aintree and went to the Cotswold. He is in lovely form.”

But Tizzard reckons his best chance of a winner is The Big Breakaway, who takes on Monkfish in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

He said: “He is a good horse. He was fourth in the Ballymore last year when he didn’t travel very well but he is in beautiful form at the moment. With a clear round he will be there or thereabouts.”

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