Colin Tizzard’s Native River returns in Saturday’s Denman Chase at Newbury ahead of his Cheltenham Festival run

NATIVE RIVER is the headline act as just five horses were entered for the Betfair Denman Chase at Newbury on Saturday.

Colin Tizzard's chaser won the race last year but has not been seen since finishing third in the Cheltenham Gold Cup last March.

He is likely to be a hot favourite to successfully defend his crown ahead of another run at the Cheltenham Festival.

Cloudy Dream would be an emotional winner following the death of his trainer Malcolm Jefferson last Friday.

The eight-year-old, who will now run in the name of the late trainer's daughter Ruth, has finished second on each of his three starts this season.

Anthony Honeyball could saddle classy novice Fountains Windfall, who bounced back from successive falls with an impressive win at Kempton last month.

Gary Moore's Traffic Fluide and the Paul Nicholls-trained Saphir Du Rheu are the other possibles.