COLIN Tizzard bids to end a fantastic year on a high as Elegant Escape shoots for Grade One glory in the Betfred Challow Novices’ Hurdle at Newbury tomorrow (1.50pm).

The Milborne Port handler has long since established himself as one of National Hunt racing’s leading trainers, but in 2016 he has joined the elite.

Cue Card, Native River and Thistlecrack were all big-race winners at the spring festivals and that formidable trio have spearheaded a spectacular start to the current campaign that has seen Tizzard emerge as a genuine contender to be crowned this season’s champion trainer.

The festive period has proved particularly fruitful, with Thistlecrack a scintillating winner of the King George VI Chase on Boxing Day before Native River confirmed himself as a genuine Gold Cup contender with a tremendous weight-carrying performance in the Welsh Grand National the following afternoon.

Elegant Escape’s career is very much in its infancy, but the 150,000 euro purchase looks another exciting addition to the team judged by victories at Chepstow and Ascot this autumn.

Tizzard said: “He’s a very nice young horse.

“He’s stepping up all the time and you forget he’s only a four-year-old as he’s done so much already.

“We’ve had this race in mind since his last one and we’re looking forward to it.”

* Jockey Bryan Cooper is keen to “have a go” at Tizzard’s stable star Thistlecrack, with reigning Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Don Cossack.

The Gordon Elliott-trained Don Cossack was a brilliant winner of the blue riband back in March, but has been sidelined by injury since.

Cooper told At the Races: “It would be nice to have a go at him (Thistlecrack).

“He is very flashy in what he’s been doing, but at the end of the day, Don Cossack is a Gold Cup winner and if he comes back with the same spark he had there last year, it’s going to take a hell of a horse to beat him.”