AFTER being sidelined with a broken back for nearly a year, Joe Tizzard has made a pleasing return to the fray by booting home a handful of winners over the past four weeks.

Tizzard gets most of his opportunities from the leading west country handler Paul Nicholls, who has put Joe up on Garruth (3.20) in the day's most valuable race, the £17,500 Tote Devon National at Exeter.

As its title suggests the contest is a long-distance affair, scheduled to take place over a marathon three-miles-and-six-furlongs - just the sort of stamina test to bring out the best in Garruth, better known for maintaining a steady gallop as opposed to doing anything in an outright hurry.

Garruth was sold out of Tim Easterby's yard for a figure well in excess of £100,000 a couple of seasons ago after recording a spectacular success over hurdles in particularly heavy ground at the Aintree Festival.

Unfortunately for his new owners Garruth hasn't been able to scale those sort of heights, in fact he's been a bitter disappointment since joining Nicholls, managing only to add a couple of low-grade chase wins at Plumpton and Sedgefield, blotting what was previously an almost perfect copybook record.

Not the type of guy to be easily deterred, Paul has pressed on with the gelding, who signalled that there might yet be another big prize somewhere in his locker when chasing home Commanche Jim at Taunton last time out.

In the later New York Fighters Charity Novices' Hurdle, By Degree (4.25) should by rights open his account having hit the post and crossbar on his latest couple of visits to the racecourse.

On his most recent outing at Ascot he was most unlucky to run into a really classy individual of Noel Chance's called Murphys Cardinal.

With nothing of the calibre of the latter in this afternoon's race, By Degree looks to be head-and-shoulders above the opposition.

By Degree's trainer Ron Hodges could well complete a double in the closing Conference Centre Handicap Hurdle courtesy of Tosawi (4.55).

Tosawi has a reputation for running some of his best races at the course and was far from disgraced when finishing a fairly close-up third at Sandown on February 13th.

Mark Buckley's Effervesce (12.45) has gone well when fresh in the past so her 91-day absence need not be too off-putting for prospective backers in the opening Fillies' Handicap at Lingfield. She won at the course over one mile on her penultimate visit to the Surrey venue and then inexplicably ran no sort of race when quite strongly fancied to follow up in December.

Perhaps Effervesce didn't take to kindly to Jimmy Quinn being in the saddle that day, a factor put right by the booking of his replacement by Joe Fanning, who has won on the five-year-old before and is familiar with her occasional tendency to miss the break.

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