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King George
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19-12-2010 9:58pm#1
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I never said he wasn't beaten when he fell in the Gold Cup. One Cheltenham defeat and an unimpressive 4 length win is not clear evidence that the horse is on the decline. If that was the case, you could have said the same going into the 2008 KG after he was well beaten in the Gold Cup by Denman, beaten by Our Vic at Aintree, fell in his prep for the KG at Haydock after winning possibly the softest grade 1 ever at Down Royal. He still won easily at Kempton though.
I'm not looking for a match bet. I'm just saying I'll be amazed if he can beat a race fit Kauto at Kempton when he couldn't beat a half-fit Kauto at Down Royal.
I wasn't offering up one!
Who knows. Personally think the prices are wrong anyway.0 -
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Kauto Star was close to death... but now the living legend is chasing immortality
By Marcus Townend Last updated at 8:04 PM on 23rd December 2010
You would not have blamed trainer Paul Nicholls if he had covered AP McCoy in bubble-wrap during his getting-to-know-you session with Kauto Star yesterday.
Such has been the turmoil during the build-up to the gelding's shot at an historic fifth William Hill King George VI Chase on Boxing Day.
The real McCoy: Kauto Star is poised to better the record of the iconic Desert Orchid
McCoy is the substitute's substitute after first Ruby Walsh, the man who has ridden Kauto Star to his four previous King George wins, broke his leg and then Noel Fehily was forced into an 11thhour withdrawal. That's on top of the freezing weather disruption which still threatens to push the King George back from its Sunday slot.
Actually winning the race and bettering the record of iconic grey Desert Orchid might end up proving the easy part with Kauto Star head and shoulders above his 10 rivals on paper. Nicholls, however, knows the unpredictable nature of racing too well to take too much for granted.
The memories of Imperial Commander gatecrashing this year's Cheltenham Gold Cup, which was supposed to be a showdown between Kauto Star and his stablemate Denman, are still raw. As is just how close he was to losing 10-year-old Kauto Star in an ugly fall four fences from the finish.
'There is a fine line in a fall like that between being fatal and not,' Nicholls recalled. 'It had rained and it was a bit slippery. That allowed him to slip away from the fall.
'I felt sick but he was lucky. He usually has his manger (where he feeds) on the floor in a tyre. For a week afterwards, we had put three or four tyres on top of each other to raise his manger - he couldn't get down because his neck was so sore. That was why it was a big day going to Down Royal.'
That trip to Northern Ireland delivered a four-length victory from his King George rival Sizing Europe and confirmation that Kauto Star's confidence remained intact for his shot at history in a race Nicholls has won six times – four with Kauto Star and twice with See More Business.
The trainer added: 'His comeback run was as good as he has ever produced first time out. If there was a sign that he was underperforming, we'd stop him.
But it is a long way off because he is going as well as he has done in any of the last three years. He has not deteriorated. Plenty of horses have ability but don't stay sound. He has been able to withstand the rigours of racing. He is a phenomenon.'
On official ratings, Kauto Star's nearest rival in the King George is Albertas Run - the horse McCoy was due to ride - and he is a 22lb inferior animal. Long Run and Riverside Theatre are both up-and-coming chasers but with massive amounts to make up, while Nacarat, fourth last year, is an each-way option, but it is hard to find a flaw in the odds-on favourite's make-up.
So, How does he compare with Dessie?
Kauto Star
Trainer: Paul Nicholls.
Jockeys: Ruby Walsh, Mick Fitzgerald and Sam Thomas.
Career starts: 35. Wins: 21.
Prize-money: £2,086,991.
Highest Timeform rating: 191.
King George record: Unbeaten in his four attempts at the prize under Walsh over the past four years.
Cheltenham Gold Cup wins: 2.
Finest hour: Equalling Dessie's record 12 months ago with his most impressive King George win.
Desert Orchid
Trainer: David Elsworth.
Jockeys: Colin Brown, Simon
Sherwood and Richard Dunwoody.
Career starts: 70. Wins: 34.
Prize-money: £654,066.
Highest Timeform rating: 187.
King George record: Ran six times -
winning four (1986, '88, '89 & '90),
second to Nupsala in 1987 and fell in 1991.
Cheltenham Gold Cup wins: 1.
Finest hour: Despite his Boxing Day
heroics, probably ending his Cheltenham Gold Cup hoodoo with victory in 1989.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/racing/article-1341198/Kauto-Star-close-death--living-legend-chasing-immortality.html#ixzz18zUJYGba
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Evergreen Kauto still a star at top of festive tree
By Chris McGrath, Racing Correspondent
Friday, 24 December 2010
PA
Kempton remained frozen yesterday as hopes for a thaw in time for Boxing Day receded
His new jockey may be man of the moment, but not even Tony McCoy will supplant Kauto Star at the top of the bill at Kempton on Boxing Day. True, the melancholy possibility remains that neither will be there, the weather having taken a discouraging turn yesterday. Assuming the meeting survives, however, McCoy would urge those who made him BBC Sports Personality of the Year to proceed now to a further breakthrough in their awareness of his sport.
For the most accomplished steeplechaser of the era, the William Hill King George VI Chase this year transcends Christmas ritual. It is a matter of history, and the passage of years – and the precarious margin between the two. Kauto Star is seeking a fifth consecutive success in steeplechasing's midwinter championship, something beyond even Desert Orchid, the grey spectre of Christmas past.
Sooner or later, however, Kauto Star must begin to betray the erosion of age. He is on the cusp of his 11th birthday. Desert Orchid, having himself won the race four times, was well beaten when he fell at the third last in 1991. He was promptly retired. Admittedly, he was a veteran then, nearly 13, and Kauto Star has been campaigned more sparingly.
Even so, his owner, Clive Smith, has distressing memories of that day, and vows not to push his own champion as far. "I wouldn't want Kauto Star to go out like that," he admits. "I want him to go out at the top."
Smith had an excruciating glimpse of the nightmare scenario when Kauto Star took that ghastly fall going for his third Cheltenham Gold Cup in March. "I was very worried," his owner says. "I thought it might be the end, even. So it was fantastic to see Ruby [Walsh] jumping back on, and riding him back to the cheers of the crowd."
In his only start since Kauto Star produced an efficient display at Down Royal last month, and Paul Nicholls, his trainer, is adamant he has yet to perceive even the faintest hint of decline. Certainly, the bookmakers have been curiously generous about Kauto Star, just two starts after the most breathtaking performance of his life, in this race last year. Timeform have him no fewer than 26lb clear on their ratings. Yet until poor Noel Fehily decided he was not fit to do justice to the biggest opportunity of his career, in a deed of excoriating honesty two days ago, the sponsors were offering Kauto Star at 11-10. Only this new association with McCoy, the punters' favourite, has now forced them into a shade of odds-on. But even that seems very fair when you remember the way he demoralised his rivals last year, carting Walsh clear to win by 36 lengths on the bridle.
The increasingly conservative strategy of Nicholls and Smith will surely keep the petrol gauge out of the red a while longer. The annals of this race are strewn with serial winners, and it is certainly tailor-made for Kauto Star. Tempted by the flat, sharp turns, the runners tend to go a hectic gallop and that enables Kauto Star to take them a place they would sooner not go.
Long Run made an impressive British debut on the equivalent card last year, but his fortunes since require a leap of faith if he is supposed to give the champion a race at level weights. Similar assumptions have to be made in favour of the Irish pair, Forpadydeplasterer and Sizing Europe, neither being established stayers. And while Riverside Theatre is progressive and adores the track, to step up in trip and beat Kauto Star himself would represent a melodrama so far-fetched that his co-owner, the splendid Jimmy Nesbitt, would generally send the script straight back to his agent.
Still, his involvement offers another boost to a sport glad to be reminding a broader public of its charms. For all that the heart goes out to Fehily – not to mention Walsh, who broke a leg last month – McCoy and Kauto Star is certainly an engaging double act. A pity, then, that reality may yet bite today when an inspection is scheduled at noon. The thaw in the snow on the frost blankets had slowed yesterday, with some of them now freezing to the turf.
So far as Kauto Star himself is concerned, however, Nicholls is certain he retains that perennial, midwinter bloom. "They're a long time retired," he observes. "At the end of the day, this horse has the best of everything at the moment, and loves what he's doing. That's why it will be a sad day when he does retire. He really is enthusiastic about life in the stable. In theory, he could run in the next three Gold Cups. But if there were any sign, at any stage, of him underperforming, we'd stop him. We all know that. But it's a long way off at the moment. I'm not even thinking about it."
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/racing/evergreen-kauto-still-a-star-at-top-of-festive-tree-2168270.html0 -
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20 days late but better late than never.
Im thinking of doing Forpaddy in the betting w/o kauto market at
7/1 with pp's.
With only 9 runners 4th place could probably pay out on the place money
or Albertas Run at 16/1 betting w/o market is another one lm looking at.
Forpaddy ran in the 2m5f hurdle at the festival and was 4th and was second behind cooldine over 2m5f at leop not beaten far,those runs help to lessen the worry that he wont stay 3m at kempton.
Anyone else fancy anything.0 -
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