Apart from reducing the risk, the social side of shared ownership is part of the fun and so it works well for me. We’ve concentrated on store horses and, with the type of owners we have now, I can go to the store sales and buy the best.”“Last year, Cue Card was all anyone wanted to talk to us about. Catrin Eymon, a strikingly efficient head girl who joined from Peter Bowen’s yard, has briefed Colin on the horses in front of a battered work board. “Cue Card was a real sharp type, out of a good mare (Wicked Crack). The long straight at the Curragh will suit her. “We went out there with Bob and Jean Bishop, who have been in racing a long time and were looking for a horse we could get on with,” he says. Do’you know, he never used to bowl as a boy, then one day in a game he suddenly grabbed the ball and said he’d have a go himself. I've never known an atmosphere quite like it. I’ve not got that many horses these days, but I have half shares in about six.A cornerstone of the West Country jumping scene, he has enjoyed many successesNewbury is my favourite course. I don’t think he’ll be 16-1, though.Then after Paul started I had quite a few good horses, including See More Indians, See More Business and Call Equiname before Denman came along. Paul Barber. I ask how father and son rub along.
"Harry has given me Denman, and he was always going to have the one that had his favourite greyhound's name on him, Big Fella Thanks. It's been very difficult for him and I really feel for him.
“If this hill hadn’t been on the farm, I would never have trained,” Colin says simply. It was 1971, when Mill Reef beat the crack French filly Pistol Packer. Maybe that will be the time to let go.”Ironically, the horse that ignited their dreams came from Nicholls and his landlord, Paul Barber. He said we could have him if we were prepared to have him in a field for 18 months. But we couldn’t run him between Christmas and Cheltenham and he didn’t have his usual flamboyance in the Supreme.”This is the home of Cue Card, one of the box-office acts in jump racing.
"That horse was simply made for Paul Barber and I was just honoured to have him in partnership," he said.
"It's very, very sad that our partnership has come to an end, but it's been going on for nine years, which is probably eight more than I thought it would at the start, and all good things must come to an end.However, her son and his former trainer are thought to have parted on good terms. I’m in the yard most days still, and if Paul’s not there I talk to Clifford [Baker, head lad] and other members of the team. The Tizzards are a rising force, and they mean to go on rising. Front of house, where the A30 meanders towards Somerset and all points west, is a racing stable brimming over in numbers and ambition.