Cue Card gets off to winning start over hurdles at Aintree
One day where the sound of bursting bubbles often filled the air, Cue Card made the transition from promising bumper horse to exciting novice hurdler look easy at Aintree.
Trained by Colin Tizzard, Cue Card won the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival in March, but several horses who won that race have failed to realise their potential on later seasons. A couple of high-profile withdrawals meant that the EBF Bestway "National Hunt" Novices’ Hurdle was not the toughest test.
However, that should not detract from the way that Cue Card went about his task. On what was an easy pace Joe Tizzard’s first task was to curb Cue Card’s natural exuberance but even so his hurdling was fluent and looked even better when he was allowed to stride on from the third-last. He ran down the flight at the last but then ran away from his field to win by 13 lengths and he could run next at Cheltenham’s Open meeting in three weeks’ time.
It was a mixed weekend for Alan King after Medermit made a winning debut over fences at Aintree and Salden Licht won a good handicap of the Flat at Doncaster on Saturday.
However, it was not such good news for King when Franklino, already a market leader for the Triumph Hurdle, made his British in the opening juvenile hurdle. He pulled hard early but found little when it was needed and was beaten 17½ lengths into third behind rank outsider Mason Hindmarsh, trained by Karen McLintock.
King was not getting too carried away Medermit, himself at the top of the market for the Arkle Trophy at the Cheltenham Festival, on the basis of winning a three-runner race where his biggest rival, Wessex King, tipped up three out. Medermit made a couple of mistakes himself over what seemed to be some unforgiving fences. "It was a relief to get that out of the way to be honest. Fives on in a novice chase round Aintree is not my idea of fun watching. But he’ll learn a lot from that,” King said.
“It won’t have done him any harm. He’s been very good at home and he wouldn’t really have brushed one at home, but I’m sure he’s learning. He gave the first a bit of a rub yesterday and hit the third-last. By all accounts they’re not the nicest of fences at Aintree at the moment but we got away with it.”
King has no plans for a next run yet and Salden Licht’s win has given him a choice between his original plan of the Greatwood Handicap at Cheltenham on November 14th or a return to Doncaster for the November Handicap the previous weekend.
Following on from his win on Casamento in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster, Frankie Dettori travelled to Italy for what he hoped would be his 100th Group One winner for Godolphin. Dettori rode Antara in the Group One Premio Lydia Tesio at Capannelle and Antara hit the front around two furlongs from home but was caught by Aoife Alainn and beaten two-and-a-half-lengths.
"She ran a solid race and looked like she had the race, won but was just beaten by a fresher filly. I think Antara has done enough for the year now," said Diana Cooper, who was representing Godolphin in Rome.
British runners were also out of luck at Longchamp when Gentoo finished strongly for Christophe Lemaire to win the Group One Prix Royal-Oak. Of the British horses Jarvis's Opinion Poll, ridden by Philip Robinson, finished third with Vulcanite (Ralph Beckett) eighth and Flying Cross (John Gosden) ninth.
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