COLIN Tizzard voiced concerns over the prospect of Alary giving weight away in testing conditions on his eagerly-awaited British debut in the Peter Marsh Handicap Chase at Haydock tomorrow.

The highly-regarded French recruit, who was twice placed in Grade One company last year, including in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris, faces 13 rivals on his first start for the Dorset handler in the three-mile Grade Two prize.

Alary is as short as 16-1 for the Gold Cup, but much will depend on his performance at the Merseyside track as to which route is taken at the Cheltenham Festival, where he is also entered in the Ryanair Chase.

Tizzard said: “He is rated 162 and is a beautiful horse. Whether he is going to be able to give weight away to all those horses in the Haydock mud, I don’t know.

“It is a different discipline, French racing to English. I’m not quite so sure that the French heavy ground is as heavy as Haydock ground. We’re just on a learning curve.

“He works lovely and is fit. We have done plenty of work with him and we will see how good he is.

“We’ve not given him a racecourse gallop, we’ve just got him fit at home.

“We wouldn’t normally do that with any of the other ones, but he was racing in November, so he is fine.

“Hopefully we’ll find out a bit more about him at Haydock.”