THE £1-million bonus offered by Jockey Club Racecourses for a horse winning the “Jumps Triple Crown” of the Betfair Chase, the King George VI Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup in the same season conspicuously failed to deliver a field of commensurate strength and depth for that first-named leg at Haydock last Saturday but it did deliver a winner of top-notch merit in Cue Card.

Cue Card, a winner at the Cheltenham Festival as long ago as 2010 (The Champion Bumper), had started the season looking as if his best days were behind him but has since enjoyed a notable renaissance, and his Betfair Chase win identifies him as pretty much back to his very best.

FOUR RIVALS

He had only four rivals, but Silviniaco Conti ensured at least one of them was in-form and high-class, and that the race was run at a solid gallop. Cue Card was never far away and went by easily going to three out before striding clear for a comfortable seven-length success.

The time was (using Timeform’s methodology of clocking from the leader crossing the plane of the start) almost 10 seconds faster than that recorded by the useful handicapper Vieux Lion Rouge 35 minutes later, with most of that advantage being established after halfway.

There should be little doubt that Cue Card’s win was as good as it looked, and he earned a Timeform timefigure of 174, surpassed in recent times over jumps only by Don Cossack (175, twice).

Cue Card and Don Cossack may well meet in the King George, with anyone who followed this column’s advice back in April likely to be on the latter at a double-figure price. In this sort of form, Cue Card will be a formidable rival at Kempton, however.