Joe Tizzard Blog | Chepstow Welsh Racing Festival Day One
08 Oct 2026
Coral Racing Ambassador, Joe Tizzard, gives us an exclusive preview of his four runners' chances on the first day of Chepstow's Welsh Racing Festival!
15:12 Chepstow – Tennessee Tango
The dry weather hasn’t really held us up in terms of working the horses at home, as we have the all-weather gallop. What it has meant is we haven’t particularly rushed to get them going early on, as we know we’re at least a couple of weeks behind where we’d normally be as far as the going on track is concerned.
Chepstow have done a great job getting the ground ready for hurdles races at this meeting, and we’ll run a few here this weekend as it will give me a good pointer as to where the horses are at.
We are throwing Tennessee Tango in at the deep end here, he will go chasing soon enough but he’s fit and ready and the wind-op he had at the end of last season seems to have worked. Based on his homework, his wind was certainly stopping him on softer ground last year.
This is a deep, 17 runner race and it should be competitive. I think he’s well-handicapped and if he did go and run in the first half a dozen, we might just delay his chasing career and keep him over hurdles for a while longer.
16:17 Chepstow – Opening Bid & Fight My Fire
We run a couple in this handicap hurdle. Opening Bid is having his first run for us, having won ten races for Chris Down. He did just get jarred up a bit on his last run, so we’ve given him a good break. He’ll have a nice spin round on his comeback, and come on plenty for it, although he does look well-handicapped over hurdles.
Fight My Fire could run a nice race, he won at 100/1 at Fontwell last season, but that performance didn’t surprise me as much as the odds would suggest. He’s well capable, on his homework at least, of being competitive off this mark.
17:31 Chepstow – Reel Orange
Reel Orange is another who was previously trained by Chris Down. She won around Newton Abbot a couple of times in the spring for us, and while she will go chasing soon enough, I think a strongly-run two miles around here over hurdles will suit her and I expect her to be thereabouts.
Joe Tizzard, Coral Racing Ambassador
15:12 Chepstow – Tennessee Tango
The dry weather hasn’t really held us up in terms of working the horses at home, as we have the all-weather gallop. What it has meant is we haven’t particularly rushed to get them going early on, as we know we’re at least a couple of weeks behind where we’d normally be as far as the going on track is concerned.
Chepstow have done a great job getting the ground ready for hurdles races at this meeting, and we’ll run a few here this weekend as it will give me a good pointer as to where the horses are at.
We are throwing Tennessee Tango in at the deep end here, he will go chasing soon enough but he’s fit and ready and the wind-op he had at the end of last season seems to have worked. Based on his homework, his wind was certainly stopping him on softer ground last year.
This is a deep, 17 runner race and it should be competitive. I think he’s well-handicapped and if he did go and run in the first half a dozen, we might just delay his chasing career and keep him over hurdles for a while longer.
16:17 Chepstow – Opening Bid & Fight My Fire
We run a couple in this handicap hurdle. Opening Bid is having his first run for us, having won ten races for Chris Down. He did just get jarred up a bit on his last run, so we’ve given him a good break. He’ll have a nice spin round on his comeback, and come on plenty for it, although he does look well-handicapped over hurdles.
Fight My Fire could run a nice race, he won at 100/1 at Fontwell last season, but that performance didn’t surprise me as much as the odds would suggest. He’s well capable, on his homework at least, of being competitive off this mark.
17:31 Chepstow – Reel Orange
Reel Orange is another who was previously trained by Chris Down. She won around Newton Abbot a couple of times in the spring for us, and while she will go chasing soon enough, I think a strongly-run two miles around here over hurdles will suit her and I expect her to be thereabouts.
Joe Tizzard, Coral Racing Ambassador
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