Cue Card reads script perfectly in Ryanair

Ever since seeing his pride and joy burst onto the scene with a staggering victory in the 2010 Champion Bumper, Dorset-based Tizzard has insisted his seven-year-old is the best horse to pass through his hands, and it is difficult to argue otherwise after he claimed his biggest win over fences to date in devastating fashion.

Beaten seven lengths into second by Sprinter Sacre in last year’s Arkle, form which looks even stronger now given that horse’s Queen Mother Champion Chase romp on Wednesday, Cue Card has since being campaigned over various distances.

A local victory in Exeter’s Haldon Gold Cup was followed by a disappointing show over three miles in the King George, but he was back on the winning trail over an intermediate distance in last month’s Ascot Chase.

After thinking hard about a Queen Mother tilt, Tizzard decided only last week that his charge would instead go for the longer Ryanair, a race for which he was a 7-2 shot as Irish raider First Lieutenant was sent off a well-supported favourite.

Adopting his customary positive tactics, Cue Card was soon bowling along merrily in the hands of the trainer’s son Joe, with some slick leaps keeping the pressure on his rivals.

First Lieutenant, carrying the colours of Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Stud, stalked the Tizzard runner moving down the hill, but it was clear rounding the home turn Cue Card was the one with a spring in his step.

He safely negotiated the remaining obstacles and galloped all the way to the line to claim a resounding nine-length triumph from the market leader, who ran a perfectly sound race coming back from three miles.

Colin Tizzard, saddling his second winner of the week after Golden Chieftain landed Tuesday’s JLT Specialty Chase, said: “Where will I ever find another horse like this? I’ve always said he’s the best I’ve had, the best I’m ever going to get.”