Entries for Cheltenham highlight due this week

Welsh Grand National winner Elegant Escape is likely to be stepped back up to the top table on his next start by heading straight to the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Trainer Colin Tizzard has indicated the seven-year-old, yet to win in six previous attempts at Grade One level, will have a short break before joining stablemates Thistlecrack and reigning Gold Cup winner Native River in the highlight the Cheltenham Festival on March 15.

Tizzard said: “Elegant Escape is now rated 159 and is only about 7lb away from being a Gold Cup horse. He might make a Grand National horse as well, because he is a tough stayer.

“We’ve just got to sit and think about it – but the fact is he has won at Sandown, won a Welsh National by outstaying them all and was second in a Ladbrokes Trophy, where he was the only one really finishing that day.”

Initial entries for the Gold Cup will be published this week.

Tizzard added: “I think his next race will be the Gold Cup, because he has had three hard races and we are only around two months away from the Gold Cup. If he had only had one run, we would have gone again. “