A day after his gallant performance in winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Native River made what is likely to be his last public appearance for some time, mixing with an adoring south Somerset crowd in Henstridge, a village a few miles from his stable. Colin Tizzard, Native River’s trainer, was delighted by how well his horse had taken Friday’s race, just his second outing of this season. But Tizzard is not tempted to rush him back to the track for one of the end-of-term prizes at Aintree or Punchestown and will instead contemplate another light campaign aimed at next year’s Gold Cup. “Everything for the rest of his life is going to be geared around the Gold Cup, isn’t it?” the trainer said. Whether he has two runs, three runs, four runs next year, I don’t know.

Source: The Guardian March 17, 2018 18:11 UTC