The question that occupied so many minds on the way home from Cheltenham last month bubbled to the surface once again here on Thursday, as Cue Card, who fell at the third-last in the Gold Cup when still travelling strongly, recorded an easy nine-length success in the Grade One Betfred Bowl Chase. Did the fall cost him victory at Cheltenham?
Even Paddy Brennan and Colin Tizzard, the victorious jockey and trainer, took differing views in the winners’ enclosure afterwards, with Tizzard less confident than his rider that Cue Card would have beaten Don Cossack three weeks ago. The most intriguing thought of all, however, is that everyone’s opinions could face a further test this year, with both Cue Card and Don Cossack now possible runners in the Gold Cup at Punchestown at the end of the month.
Don Poli, second behind Cue Card on Thursday, was 14 lengths adrift of Don Cossack at Cheltenham, a line of argument which tends towards Gordon Elliott’s chaser. Brennan, though, was in no doubt that Cue Card’s fall last month robbed him of victory, and also a £1m bonus for adding the Gold Cup to earlier victories in the Betfair Chase and King George VI Chase.
“He wasn’t at his best today and he still did that,” Brennan said. “Today, Cue Card proved to everyone, most of all, how special his connections are. The Tizzards and [Cue Card’s owners] the Bishops have been fully behind me. I didn’t feel any pressure today, because I knew he was fresh, knew he’d love the track. The only thing I was thinking is that he would definitely have won at Cheltenham.
“It [the importance of the fall] didn’t hit me straight away. I was numb, then you wake up at 3am. Could I have done something different? If a horse falls, nine out of 10 times, the jockey will blame himself. You always could have done something different. It’s not a nice feeling and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”
Tizzard would go only as far as suggesting that Cue Card “might” have won the Gold Cup, but seems committed to running at Punchestown on 27 April when Don Cossack may well be among his opponents.
“He’s not had a hard race and he’s 10 now, so he will go to Punchestown,” Tizzard said. “He might have won at Cheltenham, but they have to jump the fences, and he didn’t. He had never been on the floor before, and I believe he learnt from it.”
After 11 and a half months and nearly 600 fixtures, the race for the 2015-16 National Hunt trainers’ championship is, in effect, tied after a Grade One double for Willie Mullins helped to reduce Paul Nicholls’s lead from nearly £200,000 to about £20,000.
Annie Power, the Champion Hurdle winner, followed up with ease in the Aintree Hurdle, the card’s feature race event, while Apple’s Jade was more impressive still as she sauntered 41 lengths clear of her field in the Anniversary Juvenile Hurdle. Mullins also saddled Don Poli and Djakadam to finish second and third behind Cue Card, while Augusta Kate finished runner-up to Kayf Grace in the concluding Grade Two mares’ bumper.
Mullins reached for the memory of Dawn Run, who was trained by his father, Paddy, to win both the Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup, after Annie Power’s victory at Cheltenham last month, and he did so again after another authoritative performance here. Ruby Walsh sent her to the front after the fifth hurdle and the 4-9 favourite drew clear of her field on the bit in the straight before crossing the line 18 lengths clear of My Tent Or Yours.
“I’m just hoping that with her size, she’s still improving and getting stronger,” Mullins said. “She can carry weight and she could jump fences if that’s what we want to do with her. With her size and scope, she could do anything.”
Vautour, the Ryanair Chase winner at Cheltenham, will lead Mullins’s assault on Friday’s card in the Melling Chase and seems sure to take the trainer into the lead in the title race for the first time.
