After Colin Tizzard saddled his final runners at Chepstow on Friday, Adam Houghton profiles three of his great horses from an illustrious training career.
Cue Card (Peak Timeform rating 181)
Colin Tizzard first tasted Grade One success with Joe Lively in the 2007 Feltham Novices’ Chase at Kempton, but it wasn’t until Cue Card came along at the start of the next decade that things truly went to the next level.
Following an impressive debut victory in a Fontwell bumper in January 2010, Cue Card was then sent off at 40/1 for the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival, attracting little support in the betting against the battalions trained by Willie Mullins, Paul Nicholls and co. He made a total mockery of his outsider status in the race itself, however, quickening right away in the final furlong to win by eight lengths in the style of a potential top-notcher.
That was Tizzard’s first victory at the Festival – Oiseau de Nuit gave him his second when winning the Grand Annual the following year – but it wasn’t until 2013 that Cue Card doubled his own tally at the meeting in the Ryanair Chase (he had finished fourth in the 2011 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and was then runner-up to a certain Sprinter Sacre in the 2012 Arkle).
Cue Card reinvented himself as a staying chaser in the years after his Ryanair victory, though injury threatened to derail his career after a brilliant win in the 2013 Betfair Chase at Haydock. He missed the second half of that season after suffering a pelvic fracture and there were definite signs when he returned in 2014/15 that he was no longer the force of old, finishing well held in all five starts.
With all that said, there is perhaps no greater tribute to Tizzard’s skills that Cue Card returned as good a horse as ever in 2015/16, a campaign in which he was beaten just once in five starts. Regrettably for his connections, that one defeat proved to be particularly costly as, after winning the Betfair Chase and King George earlier that season, Cue Card still held every chance of landing a £1-million bonus when falling at the third-last in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
There were a couple more big days in Cue Card yet as he won his third Betfair Chase and his second Ascot Chase in 2016/17 despite not being at his very best. By the time his retirement was announced at the end of the following campaign, Cue Card’s career earnings stood at £1,447,454 and he bowed out as the winner of 16 of his 41 starts. He won as many Grade One races – nine – as he spent seasons in training, too.
Not only did Cue Card become one of the most popular horses of recent years along the way, but he was also the horse to put the Tizzard stable on the map when it came to the upper echelons of National Hunt racing.
Notable races won
- 2010 Champion Bumper, Cheltenham
- 2012 Haldon Gold Cup, Exeter
- 2013 Ascot Chase, Ascot
- 2013 Ryanair Chase, Cheltenham
- 2013 Betfair Chase, Haydock
- 2015 Charlie Hall Chase, Wetherby
- 2015 Betfair Chase, Haydock
- 2015 King George VI Chase, Kempton
- 2016 Bowl Chase, Aintree
- 2016 Betfair Chase, Haydock
- 2017 Ascot Chase, Ascot
Thistlecrack (Peak Timeform rating 174)
Thistlecrack wasn’t anything like as precocious as Cue Card and he was already a seven-year-old when making a successful hurdling debut at Wincanton in January 2015. He had made three appearances in bumpers before then, winning once, also at Wincanton, in April 2014.
The patient approach didn’t last long, though, and aggressive campaigning by Tizzard was a feature of Thistlecrack’s career after he had made a winning start over hurdles. Indeed, he followed that victory with five more starts over hurdles in the space of three months, notably causing a 25/1 surprise in the Grade One Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree before looking unlucky not to follow up when beaten just half a length at the Punchestown Festival later in the month.
Thistlecrack confirmed in those two starts that he was a smart novice, but few could have predicted just what a dominant force he would become in the staying hurdling ranks in 2015/16. He was simply untouchable and won all five starts that season by a cumulative margin of 40 lengths, putting up his best performance when winning the World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival by seven lengths in imperious fashion.
It was hard to see what could trouble Thistlecrack if he stayed over hurdles in 2016/17, but a different plan was hatched during the summer, an ambitious one which was supposed to end in him running in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Everything seemed to be going to plan for Thistlecrack as, after winning his first three starts over fences against vastly inferior opposition, he produced another relentless display of galloping to complete the four-timer in the King George at Kempton, beating none other than his top-class stablemate Cue Card by three and a quarter lengths.
That was Thistlecrack’s ninth success in a row and it seems remarkable to think now that he would never win another race. He suffered a surprise defeat on his next start in the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham, losing out by a head after a scrap up the straight with the ill-fated Many Clouds, and then the first of a series of injuries saw the Gold Cup dream go up in smoke.
Thistlecrack still showed high-class form on occasions later in his career, including when filling the runner-up spot behind Clan des Obeaux in the 2018 King George, but his appearances became more and more sporadic, making it to the racecourse only twice more after that Kempton run before his retirement was announced in March 2021.
Overall, Thistlecrack won 13 of his 25 starts, registering five Grade One wins and amassing £743,651 in career earnings. He was clearly blessed with extraordinary natural talent and it’s just a shame that we’ll never know what he might have achieved with a clear run at his racing.
Notable races won
- 2015 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle, Aintree
- 2015 Long Distance Hurdle, Newbury
- 2015 Long Walk Hurdle, Ascot
- 2016 Cleeve Hurdle, Cheltenham
- 2016 World Hurdle, Cheltenham
- 2016 Liverpool Stayers’ Hurdle, Aintree
- 2016 King George VI Chase, Kempton
Native River (Peak Timeform rating 172)
Native River possibly wasn’t as naturally gifted as the likes of Cue Card and Thistlecrack, but he had plenty of other admirable qualities which helped him to become a top-class chaser, a bold-jumping front-runner with copper-bottomed stamina.
Labelled a ‘real stayer’ by Timeform as early as his hurdling debut at Newton Abbot in October 2014, Native River went on to achieve a useful level of form in that sphere, even winning a listed novice over 17 furlongs at Exeter, but it was always over fences that he was likely to come into his own.
That certainly proved the case in 2015/16 as Native River won three of his seven starts as a novice chaser. He thrived when fitted with cheekpieces for his final two appearances of the campaign, first filling the runner-up spot in the National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival and then winning the Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree under an aggressive ride from Richard Johnson which suited him down to the ground.
Put simply, Johnson was a match made in heaven for Native River and the partnership was seen to particularly good effect in 2016/17 when they completed a hat-trick of big-race wins in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury, the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow and the Denman Chase at Newbury. With Thistlecrack injured and Cue Card’s best days seemingly behind him, Native River suddenly became Tizzard’s best chance of making the breakthrough in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
In the event, Native River had to settle for third behind Sizing John, but the Cheltenham Gold Cup dream was finally realised the following year. A fresher horse this time after winning the Denman Chase on his only previous start that season, Native River produced a career-best effort at Cheltenham to beat Might Bite by four and a half lengths, his stamina proving the difference in a race dominated by the first two virtually throughout.
That was perhaps the single most satisfying day of Tizzard’s training career – the yard also won the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle earlier on the card with Kilbricken Storm – and Native River still wasn’t finished yet. He won three more times (albeit in races below the top level) and ran with great credit when finishing fourth in the Gold Cup in both 2019 and 2021. Sadly, injury ruled him out of the 2020 edition after he had already won the Many Clouds Chase and Denman Chase that season.
A credit to connections, Native River was retired after being pulled up in the latest renewal of the Welsh National. He won 14 of his 32 starts and amassed £1,103,476 in career earnings, with his final success coming in the rescheduled Cotswold Chase at Sandown in February 2021, an effort described by Timeform as ‘a joy to behold, encapsulating so much that is good about jump racing’.
Notable races won
- 2016 Mildmay Novices’ Chase, Aintree
- 2016 Hennessy Gold Cup, Newbury
- 2016 Welsh Grand National, Chepstow
- 2017 Denman Chase, Newbury
- 2018 Denman Chase, Newbury
- 2018 Cheltenham Gold Cup, Cheltenham
- 2019 Many Clouds Chase, Aintree
- 2020 Denman Chase, Newbury
- 2021 Cotswold Chase, Sandown
