King George VI Chase - Boxing Day, Kempton

Grasshopper said:
Vautour's second open chase and he can comfortably be rated 175+ after that.

Add further improvement, a less forcing ride, and his favourite track, and he'll get the GC trip standing on his head. Double-figure prices are utterly crazy.
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Agree, Ruby might've done too much early on, should've left SC in front.

What was Smad Place doing midpack ? He should've been up there with SC and hope for the best. He's the same type of galloper as Vautour but with less class than him, so his only chance was to steal it from front...
 
granger said:
They will both need a prep.

he will have a decision to make.

i don't like the idea of changing a horses patten to attempt to force him to stay.

If Coneygree was there today, he'd have won by 3l
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Indeed tricky decisions to make. Though if Vautour lines up then would fully expect Ruby to ride him.

Coneygree would have added further spice. Shame he's out. Was looking forward to Djak sorting him out in Gold Cup.
 
Best finish since Burrough Hill Lad beat Combe's Ditch in a photo when only 3 ran back in the 80's

I thought Don Cossack was the one going to come and win it, my bottle went and greened up on Vautour just before the fall.

That aside can't believe they have pushed Don out in the betting for the gold cup. He's run a great trial in a race where he was taken off his feet and would have gone very close IMO

Funny thing when I said Cue Card would stay he didn't now this time round I said he wouldn't and he did. You have to be delighted for the horse.

WPM and Ricci won't be too disappointed as both Douvan and Faugheeen have gone odds on for Chelters after they both hacked up,,,,I've had abet on Douvan for the Arkle but I will be looking to take the money and run. He was very novice-like for a novice and made a right hash of the last. Wouldn't get away with that at Cheltenham.
 
i've never really forgiven CC for not winning the KG first time he ran in it..i tipped him up big time at work to win..i really believed in the horse at that time...even i'm not that patient..quality display today
 
Kauto Abu said:
I'll be all over Cue Card. For me he ticks all the boxes, has the form in the bag and that breathing op has him transformed. I know he easily stays 3miles having watched him the Betfair chase still on the bridle and eased down after the last. Same at Wetherby in the Charlie hall the run before. When Paddy Brennan starts talking of him in the same light as Imperial Commander who beat Denman in his GC you get the feeling this lad is the real deal and that breathing op for a trapped epiglottis has allowed him to breath again and finish out his races 100% better.

Remember 2013 when he had Silvinaco Conti beaten coming to the last only to have a fractured pelvis stop him dead?! On all form this year he's the horse to beat.

Vatour is hard to assess. He didn't look that great at Ascot, far from it. He looked good at Cheltenham last March over 2 and a half but nothing from the next 3 home have won since!! You'd like at least one of them to win to add a bit of substance to it but maybe he was flattered by the winning distance? And then the second that day at Ascot last month, Petit Zig, labouring in the Peterborough half a mile from home wont leave my mind. He'll be meeting a hell of a better quality horse than Petit zig on St. Stephen's Day. Add into the mix that he flopped last Christmas when Clarcam walloped him by 20L, maybe he's a bit of a scrooge and prefers the spring air in his lungs.

Personally, I just couldn't justify backing Vautour at that price with all those doubts hanging over him, having never seen him run over 3m before with the quality of opposition. He could well stay, the breeding is a positive, but the gamble for him the past week or two for the Ryanair is another seed of doubt set in my mind.

Tizzards horses are flying it & I hope there's a flood of money for Don Cossack & Vatour on the day making the already generous 4/1 on Cue Card go even bigger before the off.

Whatever the result, it has the makings of one hell of a race. Lets hope it lives up to the billing.


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What a horse. Now chasing the 1 million £ pound bonus, last horse to do that was was the legendary Kauto Star. The flood of money came as anticipated for Don & Vautour and I actually got the chance to go again on CC at 5/1 for a split second.

They'd very silly to campaign Vautour over 3m again. He was drunk coming to the last (a bit like me now thanks to Altior, Faugheen, Douvan & Cue Card) & I always said if you don't get 3m at Kempton you have no business going near Prestbury Park over 3m2f in March.

Cue Card has a serious mix of Stamina & Speed but I'd say it's Don Poli's Gold Cup for the taking.



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That aside can't believe they have pushed Don out in the betting for the gold cup. He's run a great trial in a race where he was taken off his feet and would have gone very close IMO
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That's how I saw it too. I don't think he would have won today but over the extra couple of furlongs of the Gold Cup he is likely to outstay today's front pair.

What a horse Cue Card is though and best of luck to him going for the million.
 
You have to ask the question did he just get tired or did he blatantly not stay but he's hardly stopped improving........I haven't hear what Ruby had to say and anyway Cheltenham can do funny things to a horse. Vautour seems to appreciate the undulations allows horses to get a breather and maybe just maybe he will get the trip if they send him and just hunt him round for the first circuit.

Ruby is the man and he will be advises the boss man where to go.
 
Kauto Abu said:
What a horse. Now chasing the 1 million £ pound bonus, last horse to do that was was the legendary Kauto Star. The flood of money came as anticipated for Don & Vautour and I actually got the chance to go again on CC at 5/1 for a split second.

They'd very silly to campaign Vautour over 3m again. He was drunk coming to the last (a bit like me now thanks to Altior, Faugheen, Douvan & Cue Card) & I always said if you don't get 3m at Kempton you have no business going near Prestbury Park over 3m2f in March.

Cue Card has a serious mix of Stamina & Speed but I'd say it's Don Poli's Gold Cup for the taking.



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Is this the kind of nonsense I'm going to have to listen to for the next 3 months?

Cue Card has a "serious mix of speed and stamina" yet Vautour - a horse Cue Card beat by about 4 inches - would be "very silly" to try again at 3m?

I'm sorry Kauto Abu, but this is absolute drivel.
 
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No not 3m Grassy. Do you not realise the Gold Cup, the race Vautour is geared to all year, is over 3m2f. On the evidence of today who has the best chance of staying the GC trip??

If you don't believe me check out WPM interview on tv immediately after the race. When questioned if Vautour didn't truely stay the 3m trip he said 'probably not'. That's at Kempton, a flat track & not my words but his.




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I'd be all over Don Poli now but for the thinking that Cooper will take the ride. Cracking young jockey but still has a fair bit to learn right at the top.
 
Grasshopper said:
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Is this the kind of nonsense I'm going to have to listen to for the next 3 months?

Cue Card has a "serious mix of speed and stamina" yet Vautour - a horse Cue Card beat by about 4 inches - would be "very silly" to try again at 3m?

I'm sorry Kauto Abu, but this is absolute drivel.
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I haven't done the figures yet..but visually it looked to me like a pace that wouldn't suit those on it..if that is the case then Vautour would probably get marked up by a few lbs for his run..so it would be fair to say he would stay 3 miles if ridden slightly more efficiently. If CC stays..then Vautour does too basically..at 3 miles obviously. We all know the GC is a whole different test
 
Do you not realise you said "3 miles", Kauto Abu??

Maybe you should stay off the egg-nog.

Brennan gets 11-days for whip abuse. The plot thickens, though it's fu*ck all consolation to me......not yet anyway.
 
Kauto Abu said:
No not 3m Grassy. Do you not realise the Gold Cup, the race Vautour is geared to all year, is over 3m2f.




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I'll take a guess ..that Grass knows this

i just asked our cat..and even though she only looks up every now and then at the screen..she knew it
 
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I hadn't a sow on Vautour for the Gold Cup before today. I have taken the 16's (and 12's!) and I'm feeling perfectly happy with both bets, tbh.
 
Id be heading Vatour to the Ryanair after that - he was one tired horse afterwards. Huge credit to Cue Card - to have the sort of problems he has had and come back as brave as that takes some doing. When a horse has a physical problem, you just dont know how much of a mental impact it is going to have on them and whether they will remember the last time they ran, they were either in pain or struggling to breathe - its not like you can give them a pat and say "dont worry, mate, youll find out its a whole lot easier to run now!" and that they will understand.
 
jinnyj said:
Id be heading Vatour to the Ryanair after that - he was one tired horse afterwards.
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me too

this staying thing is overrated..yes a horse can "stay" and just get beat..but when its real form is probably 10lb higher at correct trip when not all out like Vautour was today..you would always want it to run where its able to show its real superiority. To me..with a horse so superior to oppo at 2.5 miles...it would break my heart to keep watching him stretched out like today
 
Grasshopper said:
Do you not realise you said "3 miles", Kauto Abu??

Maybe you should stay off the egg-nog.

Brennan gets 11-days for whip abuse. The plot thickens, though it's fu*ck all consolation to me......not yet anyway.
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Grassy my apologies, i did indeed say 3m for Vautour but indeed meant further but what threw me was Mullins comment when asked if It was Vautours' stamina that ebbed away today after the last. His reply was" I don't know, it could be, it probably looks like that, ya.

So my line of thinking was, for a horse who doesn't quite see out the KG trip he has no business going to Cheltenham come Gold Cup day when the big boys play ball. The day before in the Ryanair yes.

As for the egg nog, I'm on CC multiple times from 14/1 down to 7/2 so there'll be a fair few more egg nog's to come.

Happy St. Stephen's Day.


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