Born in Sherborne, Dorset on December 13, 1980, Joe Tizzard began his competitive racing career in the point-to-point field and rode his first winner under Rules, The Jogger, trained by his father, Colin, in a novices’ hunters’ chase at Wincanton on May 7, 1996. As a result, Paul Nicholls offered him a job as amateur jockey at his Manor Farm Stables in Ditcheat, Somerset and, on March 19, 1998, while still only 17, won the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival on Earthmover, trained by Richard Barber.
By that stage, Tizzard had already had his first ride in the Grand National, in fact, the so-called ‘Monday National’ on April 7, 1997. However, his first experience of the celebrated steeplechase ended in tragedy when his mount, Straight Talk, broke leg after falling at the fourteenth fence and was humanely destroyed. Indeed, the National was never a ‘lucky’ race for Tizzard; in the whole of his 18-year riding career, his highest placing was fifth, beaten 39 lengths, on Montifault, also trained by Nicholls, in 2003.
Nevertheless, it was as a young jockey with the backing of the now 14-time Champion National Hunt Trainer that Tizzard enjoyed some of his best years. In 1998/99, he enjoyed the most successful season, numerically and fiscally, riding 91 winners, becoming champion conditional jockey and amassing just over £707,000 in total prize money. He won the Arkle Challenge Trophy at Cheltenham and the Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree on Flagship Uberalles and, having been appointed Nicholls’ stable jockey just shy of his nineteenth birthday, completed a Grade 1 hat-trick in the Tingle Creek Trophy at Sandown the following season.
Later in his career, Tizzard became stable jockey to his father at Venn Farm, in Milborne Port, Dorset. He became known for his association with Cue Card, on whom he won four Grade 1 races, including the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival in 2010 and the Ryanair Chase, back at Prestbury Park, in 2013. Tizzard retired from the saddle in March 2014 with 700 winners to his name.
