Yes!

All betting aside, I'd love to see Cue Card win.

Everyone loves a returning hero, especially when they've been knocked down on the canvas like he has in the past, but he got back up and is in the form of his life.  Espcially as he is likely to be an underdog against some of the Irish.

I'd love him to win for his owner who died a few days after the King George, and Tizzard seems like a good humble bloke.

Got nothing against Vautour, and I think he has the most natural ability of any horse in training, just not a fan of his connections or the way his stable do certain things.

I do like Vautour but why all the lofty opinions despite the horse has only won a race of any stature ie the JLT, with everything in its favour eg distance, going, mediocre opposition? The overran in that race, between them, could only managed one race win.

Vautour is no Desert Orchid, Sprinter Sacre, Dawn Run, Silver Buck, Burrough Hill Lad or Forgive 'N' Forget; Vautour could not even win the King George after jumping the last with a clear advantage and its main protagonist falling!

maelduin

That is exactly my point!

If someone was to say the same in a few year's time after Vautour had accomplished more than just the current JLT then I could understand and agreed wholeheartedly. Until then, I just cannot; I think its current lofty 'status' is mainly attributed to its trainer's chosen 'campaign' mainly in Ireland.

Agree, 171 is an exceptional rating for a novice, but he also made a hash in the Racing Post Novice Chase in Ireland - he nearly fell; he also was not consistently fluent at his fences (ok a novice I understand) - MOT is also a novice yet his fencing was near brilliant all the time. If Vautour has run against the likes of Sprinter Sacre, Sire de Grugy, UDS, etc instead of sp of lng odds-on, then very possibly he deserves to be accorded the high opinions. To me there are just too many holes in his CV to be thought of as a super horse at the moment especially post Kempton, its 1st and proper test.

Let's hope Vautour goes to Cheltenham regardless of going to prove me wrong, otherwise either of the victorious Don will probably not be afforded the same accolade as Vautour.

I'm not sure he was your average novice though. Absolutely top class horse, novice or not.

Interesting choice of phrase, "If he doesn't run in the gold cup he will stay at home".

So, in an (albeit unlikely) scenario the ground comes up heavy.  Would he run, or would he stay at home and all Ante Post bettors do their dough??

reports saying vautour isn't showing that same kind of spark at home? anyone else see that?

Cant see any wild plunges on the exchange now the alternatives have been quashed. Would that be a worry about his wellbeing, or did the price reflect that his backers knew where he was going anyway?

Heard Vautour not been working well at all. That being said, he wasn't working at all well before the festival last year before coming alive a couple of days before.

Rich Ricci on Got On tonight.  Hopefully be informative

from last nights betbright preview

'Rich Ricci claims Vautour only started working well 4 days prior to Cheltenham last year. And at the moment he's just not seeing that spark.
If he doesn't show us that spark we might miss Cheltenham altogether. Rich Ricci adamant he'll stay. Joe Chambers said Ruby's eyes lit up.'

All not rosy it seems.

R.Ricci on ATR has said Vautour has been aimed at the Gold Cup and would only not run if he A) Is not OK or B) if Ruby wanted 2 rides or something like that.  OMG

But i would say one or other not showing?

He says he wants two bullets at the GC. Also says he pays WM team so listens to them. So in summary we still dont really know

Says will be discussed next week in a meeting. I thought it was settled.

Never seen it what did he say