The King George was the only race I managed to watch live this Christmas period and i'm only now able to go through catching up watching back all the racing. I'm glad I picked the KG as the one race to watch -
a stunning performance and I cannot see any horse beating Thistecrack - if he gets round he wins
I've read a couple of reactions on the race in trying to downplay the form but I cannot see it. The bunched finish is far from a concern for me. I do think Cue Card ran below his Haydock form but I think that track in particular probably suits the horse perfectly so it's no surprise that he couldn't match that effort. Add in his suiting for softer ground and that he likely suffered by serving it up to TC it allowed the other horses to gain strides in the closing stages.
The result may show as only 3.25L's but it could have been so much more. Just look at Paddy Brennan's reaction after the race - he was in disbelief of just how good TC was and had no excuses for being beaten. Tom Scudamore was celebrating halfway up the running with the horse eased down. The amount of pressure on Tom Scuadmore is huge for this horse, having built up such a lead before the final 2 fences he just had to get over them, just look at Might Bite and Daryl Jacob a few races before!! A mistake on a horse like that can be brushed over but imagine if Scudamore had done the same on TC in the King George - he would have been vilified and i'm sure questions asked whether a different jockey should be onboard. On that note credit should go to the jockey and his riding of the horse.
I see no issue in the extended Gold Cup trip - I still think he had a lot left in the tank and could have gone on again if asked. It doesn't guarantee he'll stay but this clip is something that sticks in my mind
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Paul Morrison on Thistlecrack: Look at the width of this horse's chest - he is double, maybe triple their size? <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TheOpen?src=hash">#TheOpen</a> <a href="https://t.co/MKuaaaDGVe">pic.twitter.com/MKuaaaDGVe</a></p>— Racing UK (@Racing_UK) <a href="https://twitter.com/Racing_UK/status/797425980025356288">November 12, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Also would a Gold Cup of 15 odd runners really inconvenience the horse now? The concern before the King George was that having top quality horses jumping upside him could inconvenience the horse and make him prone to mistakes. He started the race jumping behind Silviniaco Conti without issue and then later on in the race had Cue Card coming up jumping upside him and that again caused him no issues. So for me i'm now looking at the list in 2 sections:
Native River
Don Cossack - I'd be amazed if Elliott can get Don Cossack back to compete with this horse after such a bad injury
Coneygree - I very much doubt he'll will run in the Gold Cup and have a strong feeling they may retire the horse (sadly)
Cue Card - likely Ryanair bound
Djakadam
Outlander / Valseur Lido / Douvan / Empire of Dirt / Josses Hill / Kotkikova / Don poli / Zabana / VVM / Noble Endeavour / Minella Rocco...
Many of those horses will either go Ryanair or elsewhere or just aren't up to TC's class. To me they'll end up in a similar position to the other horses in the King George where as Thistlecrack will race prominently and hardly see them. If I had to have a bet on how many runners will line up i'd say 9-10 would be the absolute max anyway. I guess if you had the likes of Native River, Many Clouds jumping from the front with Djakadam just behind it would be a tougher test but not a huge concern.
I'm eager to see how the horse copes with the open ditches at Cheltenham on Trials Day. Not because I think he won't be able to cope with them but they seem to really be the only blotches on his jumping fences so far especially how far the horses stands off open ditches!
I'm desperate to back the horse again somehow as he's as much of a banker for the festival as you can get for me. I imagine whatever happens evens should be available at worst on the Friday morning?? so i'm best off waiting to top up my 10/1 then but i'll be all in for this horse come the race. No doubt it'll be heart in the mouth the whole way round though such is his exuberance. For me if you were to make someone watch all 4 of TC's chase runs this season without knowing about the horse and him being a novice you would never had thought he'd be a novice of only 4 runs over fences. It could easily be a horse having the experience of 2-3 years chasing imo.
p.s I do fully see the reasoning behind Minella Rocco though - he's not had an ideal season with that fall last time out but he had a shocking season one leading up to last years festival bar his Ascot run so that wouldn't be a concern and the 4 miler form continues to get strong and stronger.
