Cue Card’s top five wins – plus the best of the rest from a stellar career

Top-class chaser Cue Card gained a massive following during his time on the track and, following the former Tizzard-trained star’s death at the age of 16, we remember some of his best performances in a piece originally published when he was retired.

This was Cue Card at his imperious best. Skipping along from the front, head carriage high but willing, his own inimitable style of clearing birch, no two jumps alike. And crucially, he met the last four fences on near-perfect strides.

That sent Cue Card soaring away from First Lieutenant to win for the second time at the festival. It also telegraphed that the intermediate distance of two miles and five furlongs suited him best. And it demonstrated, after one or two false dawns, that he truly belonged at the top table.

Joe Tizzard in the saddle deserved credit for this imposing triumph. Despite winning the Cheltenham bumper three years earlier, Cue Card was no natural at his fences and was inclined to race impetuously. Here, under Tizzard’s guidance, he showed why he would become a public favourite in the years ahead.

Nobody minded waiting an extra day for their big Christmas present. This was Cue Card at his most courageous, his most exhilarating, his best.

With the top-class Don Cossack and Vautour in opposition, as well as dual winner Silviniaco Conti, Cue Card’s prospects were not clear cut despite his recent fine form and he looked to be set for no more than a supporting role as he ran down to the second-last.

But Don Cossack fell there, and with Vautour’s lead suddenly looking vulnerable, Paddy Brennan called on his comrade-in-arms to dig deep. Cue Card rose magnificently to the challenge.

Paddy Brennan celebrates after Cue Card’s victory in the 2015 King George at Kempton

Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

He jumped the last a length behind Vautour and immediately set about reducing the margin, but it wasn’t until the last 100 yards that he began to make inroads. Then he cut down Vautour with every stride and, as though he knew where the line was, put his nose in front right on it, winning by the length of his wise old head.

Racing Post Ratings indicate that it was the performance of his life. His race record shows it was the biggest win of his life. Those who loved Cue Card had the thrill of their life. Merry Christmas, everyone.

Cue Card (far side) mows down Vautour in the shadows of the post

Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

This was a recovery mission, and few such objectives can have been achieved with such clinical yet uplifting ease. With ‘that’ Gold Cup fall fresh in the memory, Cue Card needed to put it behind him and move on.

That he did, with the panache we by now expected of him, against the Gold Cup runner-up Djakadam and third Don Poli in a – relative – test of speed that suited Cue Card better than his two rivals.

He had the change of pace that those two stayers lacked, and when Paddy Brennan sent him to the front three from home he simply surged clear.

Paddy Brennan and Cue Card clear the last to win the 2016 Betfred Bowl at Aintree

Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

As Don Poli and Djakadam plugged on, Cue Card ran free, and before he reached the final fence he had the race in safe-keeping. He might have won by a huge margin had Brennan not tossed out the anchor in the last 100 yards, restricting his official superiority to nine lengths.

Did this suggest that he’d have won the Gold Cup if he’d have stayed on his feet? Not quite. What’s past was past, but this was compensation paid in full.

In the run-up to this autumn classic, possibly for the first time, the R word had been bandied around by those over-cautious souls who saw calamity in Cue Card’s reappearance third in the Charlie Hall Chase and urged his speedy retirement.

It was poppycock, naturally, although it did lend an extra frisson to his bid for a third Betfair Chase, especially with the hard-galloping Coneygree in opposition and prime position to put pressure on any perceived weakness.

Team Cue Card (from left to right): Jean Bishop, Paddy Brennan and Hameer Singh, Cue Card’s groom

Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Instead Cue Card made light of the heavy ground and of his task, worrying away at Coneygree before delivering the coup de grace with a mighty leap at the third from home.

If there were any flaws in his character or his composition they were invisible here, as he rolled over the last two fences and up the stamina-sapping run-in like Ol’ Man River, relentless and reliable.

In the end the margin was 15 lengths, but that was simply weights and measures. The main message sent out from this performance was that Cue Card was not ready for retirement, not for a long time yet.

This was Cue Card at the very peak of his considerable powers, in his majestic prime. Victory in the King George was just over the horizon, an easy tune-up at Wetherby behind him. Before Wetherby Cue Card had gone almost two years and six races without a win, and there might have been doubts as to whether he would ever recapture the elan of his younger days.

Doubt no longer. Gone were the faltering efforts of the previous season, whisked away on the wind of a success breathing operation. Cue Card could breathe again, and he set about choking his rivals into submission.

Cue Card and Paddy Brennan en route to their 2015 Betfair Chase win

John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

This was easy. The comments-in-running indicate that Cue Card ‘raced with zest’, a sight to see and remember with pleasure, and when he swept past the front-running Silviniaco Conti on the run to the third last there was nothing more for the spectator to do but enjoy the show.

He coasted home, Silviniaco Conti labouring in his wake. Cue Card was back in business, ready for the second half of a career that would bring public acclaim and private joy in equal measure.

Paddy Brennan and Cue Card clear the last on their way to winning the 2017 Ascot Chase

Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

2017 Betfair Ascot Chase, Ascot

In the final victory of a long and distinguished career, Cue Card trounced an overmatched field to record his ninth Grade 1 success. He strolled away from a toiling Shantou Flyer in the short straight to win by 15 lengths that could have been plenty further.

2013 Melling Chase, Aintree

Even in defeat, Cue Card could attain heights few others could aspire to. Here he was no match for the magnificent Sprinter Sacre, but in chasing that paragon down to four and a half lengths at the line he recorded a Racing Post Rating of 178, his joint-second highest ever.

2011 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Cheltenham

Another defeat, yet what a defeat. There have been few classier races run at the Cheltenham Festival than this novice nec plus ultra, and although Cue Card could finish only fourth he was behind the top-class pair Al Ferof and Sprinter Sacre and the hugely unfortunate Spirit Son.

2010 Champion Bumper, Cheltenham

Where the legend first flowered. Few looked twice at 40-1 chance Cue Card before the race, but no-one could take their eyes off him during it. The formbook comment ‘scythed through field 5f out . . . romped clear’ ably sums up this fledgling tour de force, the shape of things to come.

Read these next:

‘He’s been an absolute star to us’ – jump racing icon Cue Card dies aged 16

Fans’ Favourites: ‘Everywhere I went all anyone would ask me about is Cue Card’

‘My neck went tight, I couldn’t breathe’ – how Cue Card set Tizzard on his way

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FIRST PUBLISHED 1:15PM, DEC 23 2022