Lostintranslation ended a two-year barren spell with an impressive victory in the Chanelle Pharma 1965 Chase at Ascot

The nine-year-old had not got his head in front since landing the Betfair Chase at Haydock on this weekend in 2019 – but he roared back to form in this Grade Two heat.

Trained by Colin Tizzard, who endured a disappointing campaign by his own high standards last term, Lostintranslation was sent off at 4-1 under Brendan Powell on his first run since pulling up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup back in March.

Powell was happy to bide his time as Sam Twiston-Davies set out to make all on Master Tommytucker, with Ascot specialist Dashel Drasher in close attendance throughout the early exchanges.

However, the latter was under pressure at the top of the straight, along with 3-1 favourite Defi Du Seuil, as Master Tommytucker really set sail for home.

Lostintranslation shut down his move quickly though, taking lead the after jumping the penultimate fence before sailing over the last to record a four-length verdict.

Joe Tizzard, assistant to his father, said: “I was a bit nervous coming in with this one, I was sending the boys videos of him schooling and we’ve had a couple of away days. I wasn’t going to run him half-cooked, they’ve got to back it up on the track and it’s just lovely that’s he’s gone and done it and galloped right to the line.

“This is the first step to getting him back. He’s got a King George entry, the plan is to get him back to the horse he was before the Gold Cup two years ago, he was a live contender and that’s ultimately the plan.

“We’ll see how he comes out of it and make sure we get it right so he’s ready in the spring.

“Today was a comeback, if it didn’t work today we’d be scratching our heads. He was fit for his comeback, we’ve now just got to keep him right for the spring.”

He went on: “He’s got an entry in the King George and you know what horses are like, if they’re well enough you’ve got to take your chance. We thought that would be perfect for him before, I’m not going to say it’s set in stone but we’ll just get him back and make sure he bounces out of this and make a plan.

“He loves the spring ground, that’s a big factor, we want him on good to soft ground so if the rain comes and it changes we might just have to be patient.

“We’ll be gearing towards the spring and if everything’s right for the King George then we’ve got that plan.”

Reflecting on last year for the yard, Tizzard added: “It was hard work to be honest, of course it tested us. we had a cracking Cheltenham but it was a testing time, we’d look at our horses and they’d look well and they weren’t finishing their races.

“I think we’ve put that to bed, the horses are flying and we’ve had a really good start to the season.”