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No, he doesn’t make then in every race, Mark, which is precisely the point. The horse is a fine, scopey athletic jumper 99.5% of the time. There has to be a reason why on those increasingly regular occasions he is crashing into fences. He’s not so much falling as crashing into fences. He’s not making misjudgements or mistiming things in the way that almost all fallers do, he is crashing into fences chest high.
Three of Cue Card’s last four completions have had RP ratings in excess of 170 so there is no evidence that he’s a spent force. Clearly age will catch up with him (it mat have done already for all we know) but my point is that there is no evidence it has done yet.
He had a pelvic stress fracture a few years back. Might he get a twinge from that [or a memory of it]?
Cue Card’s falls are pretty similar in nature where Brennan has asked him up off a long stride and the horse has half attempted to jump and then put down and hit the fence chest first – could argue the horse either doesn’t seem to have the same confidence Brennan has going long or he physically can’t do what is being asked of him.
He has never struck me as a horse who seemed like a natural jumper of a fence a la Dessie, Remittance Man or One Man but he does seem to have his own unique way of getting from one side to another and he may just like to do it his own way instead of having his jockey throw him at his fences.
Florida Pearl won his 4th Irish Gold Cup at 12, Little Polvier won the National at 12, Red Rum won his 3rd National at 12, Dessie & Kauto Star both had their last King George wins at 11 so I don’t think horses racing on at 11 and 12 or even beyond that is necessarily a bad thing although it would very much be on a case by case basis as to what is in the horses best interest.
Connections (rightly or wrongly) probably feel that Cue Card deserves the chance of going into retirement off the back of a good/great performance instead of a disappointing one that doesn’t reflect his true ability – remember how the public were generally calling for Kauto Star’s retirement off the back of him being well beaten by Long Run in the King George & Gold Cup before finishing that 2010/11 season with being pulled up in the Punchestown Gold Cup.
Had connections listened, we would have been deprived of those two incredible days racing in the Betfair Chase/King George and the even more powerful and fitting moment when he was applauded by the whole Cheltenham crowd after returning safely after being pulled up in the Gold Cup (even as the race was still going on).
On the question of whether jockeys tell a horse when to take off or not, the hardest thing to do on a horse is… nothing at all. It’s a rare talent knowing when to just sit still, and Fred Winter famously said that horses don’t fall, jockeys wrestle them to the ground. OK that’s the extreme, but jockeys who are continually busy in the saddle will force more errors than those who know when to leave a horse alone. It’s possible that a change of jockey will help – didn’t they say at the start that he enjoyed being fired into fences by Brennan? Perhaps he needs the opposite now, especially if he has frightened himself a bit. Once alarmed, horses can just try to get from one side to the other as quickly as possible (literally under/over/through – they don’t care). I don’t think Brennan is a ‘do nothing’ kind of rider. I’m a bit surprised Robbie Power wasn’t asked, but I suppose they wanted someone who can commit to the horse.
..and I was typing as LD73 posted, but I agree, Cue Card has always looked awkward to me too.
Judged by Timeform’s statistics Brennan’s percentage of falls over fences is significantly superior to Cobden’s. Indeed, Brennan has a better than average record. Every horse is different, but on the face of it Brennan is less likely to fall than Cobden.
Value Is EverythingLike Joe I’m worried about Cue Card Ginger, even Cobden won’t be able to stop him falling if he crashes into fences the way he did last time out. It looked as though he didn’t see the fence and the low sun theory could be true here but not one leg went over that fence and that’s got to be a concern for whoever is on board.
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...Well, no one seems to have spotted the difference between the two Cheltenham falls and the one at Wetherby. Last week he did something he might not survive the next time: he went through an open ditch. Doing that at a high racing speed might result in a shoulder break.
That’s why the Wetherby fall was so catastrophic. But he got away with it and the owners pay the bills. Including the one from the vet.Like Joe I’m worried about Cue Card Ginger, even Cobden won’t be able to stop him falling if he crashes into fences the way he did last time out. It looked as though he didn’t see the fence and the low sun theory could be true here but not one leg went over that fence and that’s got to be a concern for whoever is on board.
Nobody is saying it isn’t “a concern”, Jac. Point is there are loads of worse jumpers than Cue Card. So people saying “Cue Card should not race again” should also be saying “ban Jump racing”.
Value Is EverythingBrennan regularly asked Cue Card up when he saw a stride. On the run up to Saturday’s blunder he asked him up at the first in the back straight, steadied him into the next two, asked him up at the next and again when he crashed.
In the 2017 Gold Cup on the final circuit he saw a stride at every one down the back and asked the horse every time. No stride at 5 out and he sat still. Asked him up at 4 out then switched him to the outside and was rowing along as the horse came under pressure but responded. Impossible to be definite on the RUK coverage as he is behind a few horses but Brennan seems to steady him in.
So, Cue Card is crashing when not asked up and crashing when asked up. Like other highly experienced jocks, Brennan would not ask a horse up unless he was confident he was bang on at the fence. Sometimes you’ll see it done in desperate hope in the late stages of a race, but very rarely when still out in the country.
Point is there are loads of worse jumpers than Cue Card.
Mark, name one who has taken three falls similar to Cue Card’s and no other fall of any kind? Happy for you to consult the history books on this one.
When/if cue card dies on the racecourse which he may well do then the calls to ban nh racing will be immense as the horse is so popular even with non racing types (occasional punters,fans). It will create more emotion and publicity than your average horse death on track. Will be a disaster for racings image.
Nobody will be able to genuinely say they were surprised this horse died after a fall (hopefully that won’t happen).
Any horse can die following a fall, unfortunately that’s a part of nh racing. This is the only horse I can think of who I’m expecting to die pre race.
It’s wrong and when the ban racing protest reaches a record level after his death then I as a nh fan will find it hard to make a counter arguement against the people who want racing banned.Hopefully this scenario won’t happen but it’s 50/50 if it will or won’t.
Horses often lose their confidence after a bad fall, and that in turn leads to similar falls. It does not mean a horse that’s generally a good jumper can not get that confidence/jumping consistency back.
To find horses who’ve made similar mistakes would be a waste of time, Joe. You’ve already proven my point by saying:
GT, I’d say Kauto made more jumping errors than Cue Card does, and by quite some margin.
Cue Card is basically a good jumper. When winning his jumping is an asset. Number of horses more likely than Cue Card to die from jumping a fence is considerable. Every horse is (or should be) loved by someone, every horse’s life should be valued the same. If it’s not safe enough for Cue Card then it is not safe enough for such a significant number of horses that jump racing should be banned.
Cue Card is one of (if not THE) most loved horses in training – including by yourself, Joe. Sentiment is imo clouding the issue here.
Value Is EverythingThere are plenty of worst jumpers than Cue Card I agree, but these horses run in slower paced lower grade races.
Can you name me a horse who runs in grade 1 chases that you can say you expect them to fall when they race.
Grade 1 chases are ran at pace and mistakes can hold greater consequences than in the slower lower grade chases. Also a horse like cue card dying on track will be very well publicised and a major negative for the pr of the sport.I cannot think of a horse running in these races that I expect to fall Pre race.
Cue card I expect to fall in the betfair chase. I just hope he survives it and they say enough is enough and show the horse the respect he deserves.
Mark, sentiment is involved and I’ve happily admitted that. But that doesn’t detract from the logic of what is happening. When very experienced people like you – and there are many who have taken the same approach – simply ignore the evidence and resort to claims that he still has plenty of ability, he’s still well capable of winning races, Kauto had a few falls, every horse can fall etc etc. Here’s a fine example:
You say, “It does not mean a horse that’s generally a good jumper can not get that confidence/jumping consistency back.”
Cue Card’s confidence is fine. Confidence is not in question and I’ve never raised it. He threw some of the finest leaps I’ve seen at Aintree after the heavy festival crash. Yet he crashed again on Saturday and the fallback on lack of confidence isn’t an issue.
What I’m saying here is that all the conventional explanations put forward for why this might be happening have no evidential substance to them. I ask again as I’ve asked on my blog and on twitter: out of the multiple hundreds of thousands who follow racing and have been for decades, can someone find one, one other horse with the falls profile of Cue Card?
Not so far.
Of course he could win the Betfair or other decent races. The question is should he be allowed to try?
For those who say yes that comes across to me like this, “Oh, I know my grandfather has inexplicably walked out in front of a bus three times lately but he normally walks to the shops every day with no problem. He’s been doing it for years! He’s spritely as ever. Why keep him cooped up for goodness sake? He’s here to enjoy life!”
I didn’t actually tell Mike this, because we always start the season at the Charlie Hall and he was looking forward to going, but I really didn’t want to go last Saturday because I was so scared of what might happen to CC, and then spent a miserable journey home not knowing if he was ok [we had to leave straight after the race]. I know bad things happen; I’ve been to many a meeting where a horses has, sadly lost it’s life. But I’ve never gone there thinking that this might happen. Had the worst happened, I don’t think I would have ever gone back to Wetherby again. Over the years any problem he’s had has surfaced towards the end of his races, but there doesn’t seem to have been just one problem eg breathing, stress fracture etc. Anyway; lets just hope we’re wrong and that he finishes his next race safe and sound. At least it’s made me checkout his career and realised how amazing he has been, even in defeat .
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