‘I’m not afraid to have a go’ - Joe Tizzard set to make last-minute decision on JPR One’s Tingle Creek bid

Joe Tizzard is agonising over whether to let JPR One take his chance in next weekend’s Tingle Creek or wait for an easier opportunity at Kelso the following day – and he has said the decision will only be made minutes before the deadline for declarations.

Tizzard was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday’s newspaper to mark the 25th anniversary of his Tingle Creek success as a jockey on Flagship Uberalles, reflecting on his time as stable jockey to Paul Nicholls, the pressure of riding for such a hugely ambitious trainer and what that time has taught him for his own step into training.

Tizzard now has his own Tingle Creek contender in JPR One, who emulated Flagship Uberalles by winning the Haldon Gold Cup on his first start out of novice company, but Tizzard is uncertain whether to throw him in against the very best so soon in the season.

"I'll give him all the options but I won't decide until 9.45 on Thursday morning," he said. “I can take him up to Kelso and he'll start favourite, whereas he's 10-1 for the Tingle Creek and 16lb wrong on official ratings. Either I go and win a Tingle Creek and the world's my oyster, with a seven-year-old who's approaching the peak form of his life, or I finish third and then sit there and watch the Kelso race the next day and wonder why I'm not in it.

"I'm not afraid of having a go, I just want to make sure everything's right. We'll take them on, but only when I want to take them on."

Tizzard is lucky to be able to call upon a vastly experienced trainer for advice in the shape of his father Colin.

"It's not straightforward," admits Joe, "so when the time comes I'm sure I'll sit at the top of the gallop with my old man and ask him what he thinks I should do. It's my choice, he won't make the decision, but I'm lucky to have him to discuss it with, and we'll sit there and talk about it for ten minutes, and then he'll say, 'Have a f*****g go'."

Read more from Joe Tizzard in The Big Read, available in Sunday's newspaper or online for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday. Click here to sign up.

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