Gold Cup - Cheltenham 17th March 2017 (Day 4)

[bishbosh]

Well Tizzard certainly has lots of options, saying could run 4 in gold cup.
As mentioned above he could be looking for a 1,2,3 imo djackadam will ruin that but tizzard certainly is in a very strong position to be winning trainer.
Cue card won as should today and i doubt will move prices much

[Leicester Bigot]

Cue Card was roughly what you would have expected today. That was a pretty awful field really.

Royal Regatta gave it a go but was continually out-jumped, as his own fencing left quite a bit to be desired. Taquin Du Seuil is a typical Jonjo horse who wins, spends lengthy periods in the wilderness and then may, or may not, mostly probably not, pop up with Haley's Comet frequency. Famously fragile, Traffic Fluide somehow comes out just 7 days after vain pursuit of Altior. That looked a bad call coming in and the punters knew it. They got what they deserved with this horse who was probably overrated for being 3rd in the Clarence House to Un De Sceaux. Handicappers and punters alike seem to place faith in the truth of the form in these small field Class 1 races. Traffic Fluide has now been beaten 80 lengths within a week

My own feeling is that Cue Card just isn't quite a lock for a 1-2-3 place in the Gold Cup and at 9/2, he looks poor value for me.

[Gman84]

I'd agree at 9/2 he's no value as it's pretty much a win only price or hoping for close to your money back for a place.

I'm a big Cue Card fan and it was great to see him slip the field in the straight and cruise home and he's been a wonderful servant to the game over the years. If he won the Gold Cup it would be on close to an emotional level that wenseen for Sprinter Sacre as he's a horse the public have taken to their hearts.

The realist in me says he had his shot last year and unfortunately fell just when it looked like he was coming to the fore but even though I'm with his stablemate Thistlecrack for this I wouldn't dare deny there's a little bit of me that would love to see him do it.

[Micko70]

It's all about opinions, personally, at this precise moment, i would rather take the 6/1 for Cue Card than the 9/2 for Native River or the 7/1 for Djakadam.

Even though i was in the ante Cue Card camp last year and felt he couldn't win, we all know what happened.

Native River jumped 1 or 2 a little sloppy in a 3 runner field last weekend and cannot make the same mistakes in a 10+ runner Gold Cup, whilst Djakadam looked decent in the John Durkan pretty not quite so good in the Lexus.

However, history proves that horses who have failed in the Gold Cup before (Cue Card & Djakadam) just don't win it, whilst history also proves that horses over 10yo (Cue Card) don't win either, What A Myth (12yo) was the last horse to win aged 11 or older back in 1969.

But, at the end of the day, you can only beat who you race against and Cue Card won exactly like he was supposed to.

Cue Card beat a horse rated 14lb inferior by 15 lengths yet Native River beat a horse rated 17lb inferior by only 3 and a 1/4 length, yet some people were impressed with him and say that Cue Card was racing against nothing.

If Native River or Thistlecrack had won today's race by that distance, everybody would have been shouting from the roof tops.

[Robmull]

I have updated my trends based blog for this race now that the key trial races have been run and have identified 4 score based qualifiers from the top of the betting market, although I still believe that there is room for a less fancied runner at massive odds to sneak a place and reward Each Way support.

Timico Cheltenham Gold Cup Key Race Trends – 17 March 2017 – Updated on 20 February 2017
https://www.olbg.com/blogs/post.php?id=412174

[DannyCraig]

Thistlecrack out for rest of the season

[Brownie3]

Wow....they keep coming dont they!

[bishbosh]

Thats a sickener. Thought the class horse left in the race and his year.
Wide open now.
Wonder if mullins is looking at this and thinking has he got a curveball he can throw at this race

[Buckz990]

Thistlecrack has a slight tendon tear they found last night it's a real shame. The Gold Cup is wide open now though very interesting to see how the betting goes up till Cheltenham.

[Brownie3]

Mullins doesnt need a curve ball.....he's got a twice placed Gold Cup runner who might just be able to finally do it.

I think it would be nice after the year of death and injury his stable stars seem to have endured.

[bishbosh]

Agree about Djackadam but again thats leaving alot to chance to hope a twice placed GC horse can go better when maybe chance has gone.

After all its clear mullins wants the GC so he might throw one or 2 in to give extra chances in a weak year

I see vroum vroum mag still listed at 20-1

[Brownie3]

I think he has plenty of time on his side, is he 8 this year? still could be improving.

As for VVM, I doubt it, unless the above is the next to bite the dust!