Cue Card always has been a Ryanair horse, and 1 flukey KG victory, shouldn't change that. Got smashed out of sight this year. Thistlecrack ran down every fence, and he still smashed that donkey Cue Card
I respect you for not sitting on the fence but calling Cue Card a donkey given the absolute drivel that turns out on a regular basis is inaccurate and insulting. He's been at the top table of National Hunt racing since 2010. If you genuinely meant it then that actually devalues any of Don Cossacks wins- you can't have it both ways. Cue Card was better last year than at any time in his life and was right with the Don when he fell at Kempton and right with him when CC fell in the Gold Cup. Forget the Melling and Punchestown- they're afterthoughts and quite often class horses get soundly beaten, including Denman, Yorkhill, Kauto at those meetings etc etc. Personally I think Cue Card was miles below par in the King George but equally I think TC has a better engine than anyone and the better the opposition, the better performance he will put in.
Hardly call Cue Card a donkey Shergs. He has been on the go for 7 years and has given us some thrills during that time with (mainly) consistent form. Wouldn't claim he is better than Don Cossack (a pretty smart animal) but difficult to say that a horse who beat Don Poli by 9l, Silviniaco Conti by 7l, Vautour (by nk), only beaten 3¼l by potential superstar Thistlecrack (in fast time), beating Silviniaco Conti again, is a donkey.
the insult ' donkey ' is used so much it loses its effect , any race horse is by definition just that --- it's fair to say that a mule is slower .......or an ass -- but horses like cue card are grade 1 winners , whatever they don't win , doesn't make them poor , they are animals , like humans , have good and bad days , wonder what cue card would call an overweight human , that can't even run a hundred yards ?
In the grand scheme of things no Cue Card wasn't, and still isn't a donkey. However in comparison to Don Cossack he most certainly was made to look like one. As far as I'm concerned Don Cossack was a good few levels above Cue Card. He proved that on more than one occasion. Even in the KG, The Don was laying down a serious challenge before he fell. This was after making error after error down the back straight. He might have been right with DC in the Gold Cup, but there were 4 fences left to jump, so along way left to go. He wouldn't have been anywhere near DC coming up the hill, or Djakadam for that matter. I just wish Cue Card had of stayed on his feet in the Gold Cup, as there would have been no excuses with the outcome
Sadly racing isn't about perfection. They all make mistakes and I think, rarely run to their potential. I can't be a horse, so it's really hard to understand how much energy a racehorse couldn't be bothered using at the end of a three mile event. He can be ridden hard and whipped, but he's not being chased by something that wants to eat him. I think as reasoned human beings, we can do a better job when it comes to getting close to our potential. What's between our ears gives us more tools. Kenenisa Bekele clocked an amazing 26:17:53 for the 10,000m in August of 2005, but even in winning Olympic and Worlds golds at the distance, he couldn't come close to that record. Even sprinters rarely equal their best, even if they still have the advantage of still being in their prime. There have been times when even Bolt has predicted going close to one of his records, but ended up falling well short. (Well short for him though, is still wickedly quick.)
The Olympics aren't usually the place to be thinking about world records in the long distance events. As it's normally held in the summer in a hot city. There are no pace makers allowed, and it's a big risk going off at world record pace, as you could end up paying for it late on and costing yourself the Gold. Kenenisa Bekele also had a much better last lap sprint than the rest of the opposition, so there was no need for him to take unnesesery risks by racing against the clock instead of the opposition.
Good point Shergy. Truth is though, although he's considered one of the greats, something he proved by winning Olympic and World golds after that world record, he never came close to matching it again.
