Cheltenham Festival: Colin Tizzard stable tour

Ryanair Chase contender Eldorado Allen will lead a small but select Colin Tizzard team into battle at this year's Cheltenham Festival.

The Dorset handler, who is due to hand over the reins to son Joe at the end of the season, is due to saddle around a dozen horses at the showpiece in the Cotswolds.

The squad might be lacking the star quality of years gone by, but Joe Tizzard is pleased with the horses that are bound for Prestbury Park.

"We’re a bit light on numbers, there’s no two ways about it," he said.

"Those elite horses are hard to come by. We were lucky to have Cue Card, who kept taking us to the big days, and so did Native River.

"Hopefully we’ve got some youngsters who are going to progress to that stage and I think we’ve got some chances in the handicaps. We haven’t got a standout horse, that’s for certain."

Eldorado Allen has flown the Venn Farm flag with distinction this season – winning the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter and the Denman Chase at Newbury, as well as finishing second in two Grade Twos.

There was talk of a potential Gold Cup bid following his most recent triumph, but he will instead drop back in distance for a tilt at the Ryanair.

"Eldorado Allen is our highest-rated horse going into the Festival and he’d have to have a really competitive each-way chance," Tizzard added.

"We’re going to run him in the Ryanair. There was talk of sticking him in the Gold Cup after he won the Denman, but it’s £30,000 to supplement and I’m not sure he’s an out-and-out stayer.

"We’ve all had a chat about it and for now I think he’s a Ryanair horse. There’s a big difference between three miles on good ground around Newbury and three and a quarter miles at Cheltenham in a Gold Cup. I think he’d travel in a Gold Cup, but he can have a