Colin Tizzard to seek alternatives for Reserve Tank following loss of Exeter

With Storm Ciara claiming Exeter's fixture on Sunday, Colin Tizzard will book himself in for some quality time with the race programme to find another target for Cheltenham hope Reserve Tank.

The Grade 1 Marsh Novices' Chase is the first major spring target in what could be a busy time of year for the six-year-old, who won at both the Aintree and Punchestown festivals in 2019.

Reserve Tank had the Christmas period off last season after disappointing in novice hurdles in October and November, but returned to win four times from February onwards – and Tizzard had initially identified Exeter's 2m3f novice chase as the ideal stepping stone to bigger targets this time around.

However, with Exeter cancelling its meeting on Sunday morning due to high winds, Tizzard has been left scrambling to find an alternative for the dual Grade 1 winner.

Reserve Tank: came good in the spring last termCredit: Edward Whitaker

"We'll need to find something else for him in the next week or ten days because it's all about getting him to Cheltenham," he said.

"He was very much like this last year, through the middle of winter he was a little bit out of sorts for some reason and then he came good in the spring, so we purposely didn't race him this time.

"Now we just want to get a run into him before Cheltenham. His run at Newbury wasn't like he was last spring so we're hoping he'll be a lovely spring horse again this year."

Tizzard was also due to run Supreme Novices' Hurdle hope Master Debonair in the Listed novice hurdle at Exeter along with White Moon and 2018 Albert Bartlett winner Kilbricken Storm in the Pertemps qualifier.

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