Emotional Tizzard hails Cue Card show

As those stood by the Dorset-based trainer jumped for joy – Cue Card rivals reigning Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Coneygree in the popularity stakes – Tizzard, who also runs a dairy farm, shook his head in disbelief at the emphatic manner of the seven-length victory over old foe Silviniaco Conti.

“Spellbinding,” said the visibly moved trainer before rushing to the winner’s enclosure to greet his champion and exultant jockey Paddy Brennan who saluted the crowd before dismounting and embracing Cue Card in a moment of poignancy.

This, after all, is a horse whose breathing difficulties were so serious that retirement beckoned before a heartwarming comeback victory in last month’s Bet365 Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby.

How times change. Now Cue Card is the only horse eligible for a £1m bonus that will be paid out by Jockey Club Racecourses if the winner of this attritional chase goes on to win both the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day and then the Cheltenham Gold Cup next March.

It’s not a foolhardy proposition – the great Kauto Star landed all three races in his glorious 2006-07 campaign – and Tizzard’s charge was not stopping after shadowing Silviniaco Conti for much of the race before easing into an effortless lead on the run to the third last fence.

Though horses like the Willie Mullins-trained Vautour, a winner at Ascot on Saturday, and the reigning Gold Cup champion Coneygree should not be under-estimated, Tizzard can dare to dream on the basis of this supreme performance which was even more impressive than Cue Card’s win in the corresponding contest two years ago when ridden by the trainer’s son Joe, who has since retired as a jockey.

This, after all, is a horse who is no longer the precocious tearaway who won the Champion Bumper in Cheltenham in 2010 – his more relaxed demeanour means distances of three-miles plus are perfectly within Cue Card’s compass.

“He’s done it so well. You can only be excited,” said the trainer who had been eulogising beforehand about Cue Card’s work on the steep uphill gallop at his Dorset farm.

“Two years ago, we would have been taking on Silviniaco Conti from the start.

“Today we were able to use him as a pacemaker who took us into the home straight.

“He’s not a tearaway any more. He’s a flamboyant athlete back to his best.

“He’s entered in the King George, that is where he will go next.

“We’ve always had dreams he is a Gold Cup horse and he is a thorough stayer now.

“There’s only one race for him if we keep him in this form.”

As Tizzard knows, the word ‘if’ remains the biggest imponderable in racing and he is one of those trainers who will be guided by the best interests of the horse rather than any financial incentives.

But the aforementioned jockey Brennan – who won the 2010 Gold Cup and subsequent Betfair Chase on Imperial Commander for trainer Nigel Twiston-Davies – has no doubts about the horse’s class.

Relishing the limelight after a number of seasons in the big race wilderness, he said: “That was unbelievable.

“When I rode Imperial Commander I never thought I’d have the chance to sit on another horse as good or even a Gold Cup horse.

“The way he’s done it out there today, he felt like a Gold Cup horse.”