11.55am Cue Card on course for Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter
Tony Paley: Colin Tizzard says Cue Card is very happy with his charge as his runner bids to regain his crown in the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter on Tuesday.
The eight-year-old won the prestigious Grade Two race in 2012, but was beaten into third by Somersby 12 months ago, with that rival in opposition again on Tuesday. Cue Card went on to claim the Betfair Chase at Haydock before finishing runner-up in the King George VI Chase, before missing the rest of the season with a pelvic injury.
Tizzard is expecting a bold show, with Daryl Jacob in the saddle for the first time following the retirement of the trainer’s son, Joe, in March.
Tizzard said: “It will be beautiful to get him started and he seems in really good form. He’s been for a racecourse gallop, which he didn’t do before this race last year. A lot of my horses have been needing the run this season, but I don’t think he will. He’s ready to rock.
“Daryl [Jacob] rode him in the racecourse gallop and has been down and schooled him. Everything seems to have gone really well. Last year we used this race as a stepping-stone to the Betfair Chase and I’m sure every horse in the race tomorrow will be using it as a stepping-stone for something.”
Somersby was in receipt of over a stone from Cue Card a year ago, but carries just 8lb less for the rematch. Mick Channon’s charge makes his first appearance since the Punchestown Festival in April.
The trainer said: “He seems in great form. I couldn’t be happier with him really. He’s a few pounds higher in the weights than he was this time last year and he’ll come on for the run, but he’s fit enough to do himself justice. Fitness-wise, I think he’s exactly where he was this time last year.
“It’s a very good race. Alan King’s horses are flying and he runs a good horse [Balder Succes] and you have to have a lot of respect for Cue Card, but we’re going there hopeful our horse will run very well.”
Monday’s best bets, by Chris Cook
So I suppose we should have a cut at this Melbourne Cup thingy that’s due to take place in the middle of the night. Although, if I’m being honest, my feelings toward the whole Aussie jamboree are rather clouded, not to say embittered, by my experience of it over the past two years.
In 2012, I tipped Fiorente in this space and I backed him too. Alas, he finished second, beaten a length, at 30-1, which is the sort of thing that happens to value selections all the time.
I’d have moved on fairly cheerfully but for the fact that Fiorente turned up in the race again last year and won at odds of 6-1. Of course I didn’t back him. He was the one horse I absolutely couldn’t back last year, being a fifth the odds that I’d had about him 12 months before, despite a bigger weight.
Turning to this year’s event and trying not to let the foregoing affect my judgement in any way, I note that good old Cavalryman is the subject of a late injury scare, vets at the track having noted swelling around a fetlock. X-rays are being examined. Could you back that horse in those circumstances? I’d say not, not for a furiously competitive race run in a country where the ground is usually faster than you would get here. So of course he’ll turn out to be fine and win easily.
I was just pondering whether to have a few quid on Sea Moon (remember him?) at a huge price when he was taken out of the race with a high temperature. He had a rotten draw, so I dare say that’s saved me my stake money but he was 100-1 and that would have been crazy if he were fit.
Mutual Regard (4.00) is the eventual choice. The Ebor winner’s career has been one of gradual progress and his style of racing suggests he might be very well suited to this test if granted a trouble-free run.
Van Percy, known in Australia as Lord Van Percy, was runner-up in the Ebor and has since done well enough in a big handicap at Caulfield to suggest the York form could be of sufficient quality in this context. Damien Oliver, three times a Melbourne Cup winner, rides and it would surely surprise no one if Johnny Murtagh were able to train the winner of a race like this.
Mutual Regard is 10-1 and that’ll do for me, although Lucia Valentina is also easy to like at 7s.
The pick of today’s British action is at Kempton, where I like Bertie’s Desire (3.40) at 7-4 for one of the handicap chases. He goes well on decent ground and looked at home here when scoring in April. He’ll be sharper for his reappearance second in a better race at Wincanton.
Tipping competition - a new week
Congratulations to JimmyDeuce, who led on Friday morning and then picked all three winners, which made him rather hard to pass. His final score was +27.25 and he won by almost £15.
This week’s prize, with Cheltenham’s November meeting just 11 days off, is a copy of Cheltenham Et Al, The Best Of Alistair Down, a newly published collection of the best columns by the Racing Post man who sadly no longer adorns our screens on Channel 4. The book is “by turns moving, uplifting and laugh-out-loud funny,” says the blurb. If you don’t win, you can buy a copy here.
To kick things off, we’d like your selections, please, for these races: 3.40 Kempton, 4.00 Plumpton, 4am Flemington (Melbourne Cup).
As ever, our champion will be the tipster who returns the best profit to notional level stakes of £1 at starting price on our nominated races, of which there will be three each day up until Friday. Non-runners count as losers.
In the event of a tie at the end of the week, the winner will be the tipster who, from among those tied on the highest score, posted their tips earliest on the final day.
For terms and conditions click here.
Good luck!
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