Racing: The born rider learning to race

A big week beckons racing's own Owen.

THE GOOD Christmas fairy was handing out gifts with a vengeance back in mid- December 1979. Nineteen years and one week ago she smiled upon Mrs Tizzard and baby Joe as she flew over Sherborne, and as an afterthought the following day had enough stardust left over to sprinkle on a certain little Michael Owen as he lay in his crib in Chester.

Football's wunderkind has already made his mark on the biggest sporting stage. On Saturday his racing equivalent, Joe Tizzard, will attempt to do likewise in the Boxing Day showpiece, the King George VI Chase at Kempton. He rides the defending champion and ante-post favourite See More Business.

It is the eight-year-old gelding's trainer, Paul Nicholls, who has given Tizzard his chance. He spotted the teenager's natural young talent on the West Country point-to-point circuit, took him on as yard amateur, watched him win the Foxhunters' Chase at Cheltenham on Earthmover and persuaded him to turn professional shortly afterwards.

But just six weeks ago Tizzard was thrust into the spotlight. He had been shadowing the stable jockey, Timmy Murphy, when the decision came that, due to the wishes of some of the patrons at Nicholls's Somerset yard, he was in and Murphy was out. The promotion may have come sooner than expected, but Tizzard has not turned down the first-team jersey.

So far, like his almost contemporary, he has worn it well. And in at least one important way it has all slotted into place perfectly for Nicholls, who is delighted with the way his established star horse and rising star jockey have teamed up.

The pair met for the first time last year. See More Business, then in his novice season as a chaser, had fallen at Wincanton in February and Nicholls selected Tizzard as pilot in a confidence-boosting spin round the Mendip point-to-point course.

"He's a real horseman," Nicholls said, "with long legs and very good hands, and he just sits there and lets what he's riding get on with it. And that suits See More Business very well. One or two who have ridden him have tended to fire him into his fences and he says 'no thanks' and it goes wrong. He is not a big, scopey horse, and if he is wrong at a fence he can't stand off and take a long one. He has to go in short and fiddle in his own way, and Joe just lets him have his head and do it himself."

Nicholls made the very good point that no one jockey suits every horse perfectly. And on the same afternoon 15 days ago that Tizzard and See More Business were notching their first win together in the Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow, Tony McCoy was giving a masterclass in the art of positive, in-your-face jockeyship on another of the Manor Farm Stables inmates, Dines, at Sandown.

But Nicholls regards Tizzard as a fine investment. "A lot of people thought I was mad to take on an 18-year-old," he said, "but I've got a lot of confidence in him. He's level-headed, listens to advice and criticism and horses jump for him. And jumping is what it's about."

See More Business, owned by Paul Barber and John Keighley, is just about spot-on for Saturday's fray. He has followed the same build-up programme as last year - a place in the Edward Hanmer Chase behind Suny Bay at Haydock last month, a win in the Rehearsal - and has not, in Nicholls's judgement, put a hoof wrong. "When he ran at Haydock he was 518 kilos, far heavier than his ideal fighting weight," he said. "He came there cruising off the home turn as soon as Joe asked, but then made a mistake and ran out of puff. And he was carrying top weight in a handicap, which is always difficult.

"At Chepstow he was down to 506 kilos, exactly what he was last year when he won. And I think beating Dom Samourai was a better performance than beating Indian Tracker. I had him on a mark of 157 then and 172 this time.

"But unless these top horses win doing triple handstands on the run-in people decry them. All they can do is win, though. And this one will never be a flamboyant horse who wins by a mile. Basically, he is slow - staying is his forte - so he is flat out all the time, which is why he does make mistakes. At Chepstow he missed the first two in the straight, but one smack and he was on the bridle again, and quickened.

"As long as the ground is soft, Kempton suits him. They go fast enough over the three miles, and in a fast-run race you can make plenty of use of him. You have to keep him going, though, and Joe will know he's ridden in a race."

Tizzard may be a born horseman, but he is still learning his trade as a jockey, a fact which he knows perfectly well and which keeps his feet on the ground. He and his permit-holding farmer father Colin, who launched him on the point-to-point circuit, go though videos of his races nightly. In one sense, though, Joe is head and shoulders above his colleagues, for this young man who is riding high is also walking tall. All six feet of him.

"I did once think I might be too tall to be a professional jockey," he said, "but Paul has supported me all the way. I don't have a problem with my weight at the moment, I can do 10st and still eat. I know I will have to work more on my style than the smaller jockeys, because I'm bound to look untidier. But having long legs is also an advantage. I sit more round the horse, not perched on top.'

Tizzard's favourite, obviously, is See More Business. "I couldn't believe it when I first rode him. I'd never known anything like it. He has a beautiful action and absolutely floats up the gallops. And he's clever, too; he does make a mistake, but he's never felt like falling."

Watch Michael Owen score a goal, watch Joe Tizzard ride a winner. They are aged 19, with the joyous enthusiasm of youth as yet undimmed, and very, very good at something they love doing. Is Tizzard looking forward to Saturday, lining up in a Grade One race, playing to an audience of tens of thousands alongside the men who are his heroes? Do kids like Santa? "Yes," he replied, grey eyes aglow. "Oh yes."