Cue Card can milk Cheltenham Gold Cup for dairy farmer Tizzard
Cue Card, trained by dairy farmer Colin Tizzard, can repel a formidable Irish challenge and scoop his owners a £1 million ($1.4 million) bonus in Friday's Cheltenham Gold Cup. The chasing blue riband may be bereft of injured defending champion Coneygree but is regarded as a potentially exceptional renewal of the Festival's last day showcase. Irish training maestro Willie Mullins, with four winners in the bag after the first two days of battle in the Cotswolds, has an inevitably seductive hand to play with last year's runner-up Djakadam and Don Poli. Ruby Walsh, the Festival's most successful jockey, is aiming to achieve a rare double in adding this to his emotional win on the brilliant mare Annie Power in Tuesday's Champions Hurdle. There is no better rider at reading Prestbury Park's complex undulations than Walsh, although the pair did suffer a fall in his Gold Cup prep in January, a second tumble form three outings in the Cotswolds. Don Poli, on the mark here last year, underlined his claims in a Grade One at Leopardstown in December, with 100-1 outsider and stablemate On His Own beaten back in fourth. Mullins, assessing his Gold Cup contingent at the start of the week, said: "It's a phenomenal team to have going for a race like the Gold Cup. I just concentrate on my own and not look at the Don Cossacks and Cue Cards of this world." Don Cossack, trained by Gordon Elliott, heads the betting. There are those who believe he was going like a winner when falling at the penultimate fence in December's King George VI Chase. That Boxing Day highlight was won in thrilling fashion by the gifted jumper Cue Card, who showed guts and stamina in abundance to power to a head win over Vautour. - Horse of a lifetime - In a massive vote of confidence Bryan Cooper has opted to ride Don Cossack over Don Poli, with the pair owned by Michael O'Leary of Ryanair fame's Gigginstown Stud. Cooper, explaining his choice, said: "The ground's plenty dry enough, he's the highest-rated horse in training, that's helped me make the decision and I won't be changing my mind now." The 3-1 favourite's Irish trainer Gordon Elliott, when asked what he fers most, replied: "Willie Mullins". Cue Card, on offer at 4-1, lines up on a four-timer after a superb season with Grade One wins at Haydock and the King George. One of the most seductive aspects of that last performance was his battling stamina, which in the past has been suspect. Already a two-time winner at the Festival he is rejuvenated this season after a fallow spell, posting a career best performance in the King George. Tizzard believes that however good his charge was at Kempton, he'll be better at Cheltenham. "I think we’ve got a better chance of winning the Gold Cup than we had going into the King George,” Tizzard told The Guardian recently. “He likes Cheltenham, he's brilliant around Cheltenham, he can come down the hill and have a breather and then go again. "He's shown that he's a stone better around Cheltenham than he is around Kempton." Tizzard added on Wednesday: "He is absolutely brilliant at the moment and is the horse of a lifetime." Cue Card will scoop his connections a seven-figure windfall in he adds the Gold Cup to his wins at Haydock and Kempton. "If I could win the Gold Cup, it would be the pinnacle of training - it would last forever. "The money (including the £1 million bonus) is fantastic and a lovely idea for the stable staff, the owners and everybody else. "Money goes, doesn't it - I can pay off part of my mortgage and it will be gone." Tizzard, who has the not inconsiderable matter of 700 dairy cows to look after as well, added: "When he races there doesn’t seem to be a bottom to him. "He just powers away at the end and he's just looked better than anything else over three miles this season."
