Jockey Brennan on cue in Christmas racing highlight

IT’S turning into an unforgettable National Hunt season for Galway jockey Paddy Brennan – and it’s all down to one horse, the rejuvenated Cue Card.

For the Ardrahan native’s dream campaign cross channel reached a memorable crescendo at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day when he snatched the King George VI Chase in the dying strides from the pace setting Vatour.

Second only to the Cheltenham Gold Cup in terms of prestige for staying chasers, the Christmas highlight saw Brennan and Cue Card achieve a hugely popular triumph in an ultra-competitive renewal.

Within seconds of his big race success, Brennan proclaimed: “That’s the best feeling of my whole career, the best day of my life. Cue Card has changed my career.”

Racing’s hottest new alliance had already left their mark on this winter’s cross channel programme with victories in the Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby and the Betfair Chase at Haydock, and their Kempton success has continued their fairytale run

Now the connections of the remarkable Cue Card are in line for a £1m bonus if the nine-year-old can land the Cheltenham Gold Cup next March to augment those high profile wins in the Betfair Chase and King George.

Brennan, who came in for the ride on Cue Card at the start of the season when Joe Tizzard, son of the horse’s trainer Colin, retired from the saddle, was seen at his strongest in getting his willing mount up on the line at Kempton last Saturday.

It was a race which had attracted some of chasing’s heaviest artillery, but the Willie Mullins trained Vatour appeared on the brink of adding to his lofty reputation when holding a clear advantage on the run to the second last.

Cue Card and market leader Don Cossack were leading the chasing pack, but Gordon Elliott’s stable star took a heavy fall at the penultimate fence as Ruby Walsh and Vatour continued to set an unrelenting gallop up front.

But on the approach to the last, Cue Card began to reduce the deficit and despite an untidy jump at the final fence, Brennan threw everything at his gallant charge to nail Vatour in the shadow of the post.

Full report in this week’s Connacht Tribune.