Cue Card© Photo Healy Racing
Colin Tizzard labelled Cue Card the "horse of a lifetime" as he gets ready to bid for a £1million bonus in the Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup.
After winning the Betfair Chase and William Hill King George VI Chase already this season, Tizzard's star has the first two legs of jump racing's Jockey Club-backed 'Triple Crown' already in the bag.
A horse who won the Champion Bumper as a four-year-old, Cue Card is now 10 and still punching his weight at the highest level, arguably in the best form of his life - despite numerous problems.
"This year has been the making of him. The last two years we've not got to Cheltenham with him and last year about three weeks before Cheltenham he could not get up the gallop as his epiglottis had gone," said Tizzard.
"We took him away and put a camera on his head and within five strides his epiglottis was coming up, it was like having a golf ball up in his throat.
"In desperation last year we put a tongue tie on him, but this year he has come back looking a million dollars and from the first time we ran him he's just been very good. He's been good all year and is brilliant still - he now looks like a staying chaser.
"It took all of the three miles at Kempton to get him there, that's what Paddy Brennan said, it took him three miles to get past Vautour and if it was another half a mile, he'd have won by two or three lengths, if not more.
"He never shows his best around Kempton. He looked outstanding winning the bumper as a four-year-old, he ran away with that and the Ryanair and he doesn't owe us anything and he's at the peak of his form."
Assessing his preparation, Tizzard added: "He's had a busy week this week, he'll go to Kempton on Saturday for a racecourse gallop and he'll have a busy week next week as well, then we'll go back to normal training with him.
"He's absolutely brilliant at the moment and is the horse of a lifetime."
