WHAT A CRACKER
Thistlecrack storms King George to show Gold Cup credentials
HE HAD only run in three novice chases and was perilously inexperienced to take on the best around.
But Thistlecrack was crowned king of steeplechasers with a scintillating display of destructive power in the 32Red King George VI Chase at Kempton.
Some great horses have won this mid-season championship contest, from Arkle to Desert Orchid and the magnificent Kauto Star.
But Colin Tizzard-trained Thistlecrack’s name is worthy of being mentioned alongside them after he beat stablemate and 2015 winner Cue Card three-anda-quarter lengths with dual winner Silviniaco Conti a shorthead further back in third.
The winning margin would have been much bigger had jockey Tom Scudamore not stood in his stirrups and held his fist in the air in a triumphal salute for the last 50 yards. Scudamore, winning a race that eluded his eight-time champion father Peter but won by his late grandfather Michael on Rose Park in 1956, asked his mount some serious questions and they were answered with some prodigious leaps.
Scudamore, who admits he has never sat on a horse which can gallop as fast and as long as Thistlecrack, said: ‘I just wanted to put him in the right positions and knew he’d do the rest.
‘You know you are on something very special and you know when you ask him he is going to keep on delivering. He has everything.’
Few King George VI Chases are run on such decent ground but few winners clock a time below six minutes. Kauto Star only did it once in 2008 and Thistlecrack’s winning time of 5min 53.30sec was almost four seconds quicker.
The contest billed as a heavyweight dust-up between the two chasers who live alongside each other in the Dorset stable of dairy-farmer-turned-trainer Tizzard was settled well before the finishing line.
Down the back straight, Paddy Brennan had moved Cue Card upsides with 11-10 favourite Thistlecrack to pressurise his young rival, but the move was casually brushed off.
Brennan, who had said it would take something special to stop in-form Cue Card, admitted: ‘Thistlecrack is unbelievable. He does it with so much ease and reminds me of the greats, Denman and Kauto Star. He is some racehorse but I am also really proud of Cue Card.’
Once they entered the home straight it was simply a question of Scudamore and Thistlecrack negotiating the last three fences.
Tizzard and owners John and Heather Snook had aimed Thistlecrack for the big prize rather than stick with fellow L-plate chasers in the supporting Kauto Star Novices Chase which the trainer still won, albeit fortuitously, with Brennan-ridden 33-1 shot Royal Vacation.
The trainer said of Thistlecrack: ‘He has had his biggest test and is a brilliant horse. He was almost like a show jumper, never touched a twig. He has everything you want in a racehorse. He is at the peak of his powers.’
Tizzard admitted he had privately expected the Thistlecrack show, adding: ‘I have sat on the fence for the last few weeks but you have all seen what Thistlecrack is capable of. It was just a matter of his jumping. We’ve seen this horse now for two seasons. He is very good.’
Thistlecrack, who won the World Hurdle at last season’s National Hunt Festival, is now evens favourite to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup on March 17. He could have one run beforehand at Cheltenham’s trials day at the end of January.
Tizzard’s Kempton success pushed him through the £1million prize-money barrier for the season. Only nine-time champion Paul Nicholls is ahead of him.
And Tizzard saddles three runners in this afternoon’s Coral Welsh National at Chepstow, including favourite and Hennessy Gold Cup winner Native River.