Cue Card: simply the most admirable ace of hardy staying chasers

On the second day of Christmas Racing Post gave to me . . . a tribute to the magnificent Cue Card – first available to Members' Club subscribers on April 17, 2018. Click here for more information and to sign up

It took the ancient chroniclers around 260 chapters to knock out the story of Jesus and his mates in the New Testament, so how do you shoehorn the incarnation of Cue Card into 600 words?

Of course Jesus performed his miracles – raising Lazarus from the dead always a touch less impressive than the water into wine trick at Cana – but the son of God never won the King George, let alone three Betfair Chases.

And in an increasingly secular Britain it is likely that among Racing Post readers Cue Card could probably muster more followers than the man from Nazareth.

Cue Card: in a league of his own on the way to victory in the Ascot Chase in 2017Credit: Edward Whitaker

Both spent time in the wilderness. A mere 40 days back in biblical times whereas the redoubtable Cue Card spent the entire 2014-15 season in a winless desert before rising again to reclaim former glories and go on to achieve mightier feats.

What was extraordinary about Cue Card was the happy grip he exerted on the racing public and the way in which he came to be carried along on a rising tide of popularity and surge of unvarnished affection.

He acquired the status of most popular chaser in training and that is a gift not lightly earned. Jumps fans are a sentimental bunch – it is one of the ties that bind – but we don't dispense our admiration willy-nilly.

Like trust it has to be earned, and in the case of the staying chaser, hard earned. We need to see them going through the mill season in season out before the scales fall from our eyes and there is suddenly mass accord that we are in the presence of the unforgettable.

And we are suckers for triumph over adversity. That is how it should be – in racing as in life.

That is why Cue Card's victory on November 21 in the 2015 Betfair Chase was such a milestone.

He had warmed up for Haydock by winning his first race for 23 months with a favoured-by-the-weights success in the Charlie Hall. But the Betfair was an altogether more acid test. Could he still cut the mustard at the top level?

Cut it? He lacerated it, winning all but on the bridle from old rival Silviniaco Conti. He was not only back but firing broadsides – it was akin to the restoration of the monarchy.

And it was the first time we truly understood what he meant to the benign toughie that is Colin Tizzard. It was Cue Card who gave us Tizzard the trainer rather than the farmer, whizzing him up in the express lift from middle storeys to the penthouse suite.

Tizzard stood there in the winner's enclosure trying to blink back tears. The score was Ducts 1 – Dorset 0. And quite right too.

But while those who love Cue Card have been to plenty of wonderful weddings there have been memorial services as well. Agonising Gold Cup falls ensuring that Cue Card is doomed ever to wander that tantalising unmapped country of the might have been.

On his racecourse debut in January 2010 he bolted up in a bumper at Fontwell. A happy Colin Tizzard pottered down to the winner's enclosure but of son Joe and the winner there was no sign.

The wait stretched into minutes. Still no horse. Truth be told Joe simply could not pull him up.

It is seven miles from Fontwell to Goodwood and they say Trundle Hill did the trick.

Beautifully served by connections he has been taking us all over happy horizons ever since.

Now he returns to Hardy country and hardy is exactly what he has been. The chaser as chum. And we rightly grow very attached to them.

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'Cue Card can stay here as long as he lives' - Tizzard pays tribute

Cue Card retirement 'an end of an era' says proud owner Bishop

A legend bows out: the best images from Cue Card's career