'My neck went tight, I couldn't breathe' - how Cue Card set Tizzard on his way

Colin Tizzard has picked out Cue Card's sensational victory in the 2010 Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival as the moment that felt as if "the doors had opened" for him as he prepares for the final week of his remarkable training career.

Tizzard, who is set to hand over the licence to son Joe at the end of the season, was speaking to the Racing Post for a major interview in Sunday's newspaper in which he recalled the highs and lows of a career that saw him transformed from a dairy farmer with a handful of horses to a man mixing it on the biggest stage.

Cue Card, now 16 but still part of the furniture at the Tizzard yard, was widely credited with kick-starting the entire operation.

Relive Cue Card's victory in the 2010 Champion Bumper

His proud trainer said: "I remember when he won on his debut at Fontwell. We went back to the winner's enclosure and waited for ten minutes for him to come back and I thought bloody hell, he must have injured himself, but he'd gone round the top bend and Joe couldn't stop the bugger until halfway down the back.

"He was a super athlete and I reckon if we cantered him up the gallops for three weeks, he'd still be able to win – that's how good he was.

Colin Tizzard: will retire at the end of the seasonCredit: Edward Whitaker

"Of course, winning the Gold Cup [with Native River in 2018] was the pinnacle, no two ways about it, but the moment that almost made me have a stroke was the last two furlongs of Cue Card's Champion Bumper.

"My neck went tight and I couldn't breathe. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. At that moment it felt as though the doors had opened and the whole world was in front of us."

If that was the start, handing over the licence to Joe will not necessarily be the end for Colin, who will still be a partner in the racing yard and the farm with wife Pauline adamant he will not be allowed to hang around the house.

She added: "He'd just get in the way, and he knows that."

Read more from Colin Tizzard in The Big Read, available online for Members' Club Ultimate subscribers from 6pm on Saturday or in Sunday's Racing Post newspaper. Click here to sign up.

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The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday