Cue Card half-brother Hugos Other Horse shows grit to get off the mark

Hugos Other Horse, a half-brother to the multi-talented and much-loved jumps superstar Cue Card, showed admirable battling qualities to break his maiden in a bumper at Fontwell on Sunday.

It is nine years ago that Cue Card scored at the West Sussex track on debut. With just that one run under his belt he went to Cheltenham and ran out a surprise but scintillating eight-length winner of the Champion Bumper for trainer Colin Tizzard and owner Jean Bishop.

The son of King’s Theatre went on to win another 14 races, including three editions of the Betfair Chase, two renewals of the Ascot Chase, as well as an Aintree Bowl, Ryanair Chase and King George VI Chase.

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He was retired at the age of 12 last year after being pulled up in the Ryanair Chase, and must be considered one of the great jumping talents of the new millennium.

Hugos Other Horse, a five-year-old trained by Paul Nicholls for the Stewart family, has big shoes to fill but the manner in which he buckled down after being headed at Fontwell to get back up and score by a head from Emma Lavelle’s Fame And Glory gelding Thunderstruck suggests he has some of his sibling’s courage.

He was bred by Rowland Crellin out of Wicked Crack, a daughter of King’s Ride who was a six-time winner over hurdles and fences for trainer Eddie Hales and finished second to Native Upmanship in the Grade 2 Kinloch Brae Chase at Thurles.

Wicked Crack, bought by Crellin for €120,000 at the end of her racing career, has been represented by four winners from five runners. She died in 2017 leaving a Milan four-year-old filly and a three-year-old Leading Light filly as her final produce.

Hugos Other Horse was bought by Nicholls with Tom Malone for £80,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Sale of November 2017.

He hails from the final crop of Gold Well, an unraced Sadler’s Wells brother to Montjeu who stood at Arctic Tack Stud for most of his career but died after standing one season at Beeches Stud in 2013.

Gold Well’s final crop also includes the unbeaten exciting hurdlers Emitom (with Warren Greatrex) and Galvin (Gordon Elliott), as well as the Evan Williams-trained Present Value, runner-up to Al Dancer on debut and a seven-length winner of a Chepstow maiden hurdle over Christmas.

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